Eduardo e Cristina is an opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

tic 'dramma' in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

 libretto

Libretto

A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

 originally written by Giovanni Schmidt

Giovanni Schmidt

-Life:He moved to Naples whilst still young and stayed there his whole life. Between 1800 and 1840 he wrote libretti for 45 operas, especially for the Teatro San Carlo, for which he was official poet. He and Andrea Leone Tottola were the two librettists who dominated theatrical life in Naples in...

 for Odoardo e Cristina (1810), an opera by Stefano Pavesi

Stefano Pavesi

Stefano Pavesi was an Italian composer.Born in Casaletto Vaprio, he is best known for his many operas.. He died at Crema, Lombardy in 1850.-References:...

, and adapted for Rossini by Andrea Leone Tottola

Andrea Leone Tottola

Andrea Leone Tottola was a prolific Italian librettist, best known for his work with Gaetano Donizetti and Gioachino Rossini.It is not known when or where he was born...

 and Gherardo Bevilacqua-Aldobrandini.

This pastiche work was composed in a great hurry for a first performance arranged less than a month after the premiere of Ermione

Ermione

Ermione is a tragic opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Andrea Leone Tottola, based on the play Andromaque by Jean Racine.- Performance history :...

. Rossini borrowed some of the music from his other works, Adelaide di Borgogna

Adelaide di Borgogna

Adelaide di Borgogna, ossia Ottone, re d'Italia is a two-act opera composed by Gioachino Rossini to a libretto by Giovanni Schmidt...

, Ricciardo e Zoraide

Ricciardo e Zoraide

Ricciardo e Zoraide is an opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Francesco Berio de Salsa...

, as well as Ermione.

Performance history

Eduardo e Cristina was first performed at the Teatro San Benedetto

Teatro San Benedetto

The Teatro San Benedetto was a theatre in Venice, particularly prominent in the operatic life of the city in the 18th and early 19th centuries. It saw the premieres of over 140 operas, including Rossini's L'italiana in Algeri, and was the theatre of choice for the presentation of opera seria until...

, Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

, on 24 April 1819.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, April 24, 1819 (Conductor: )
Carlo, King of Sweden	tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...	Eliodoro Bianchi
Cristina, his daughter, secret wife of Eduardo	soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...	Rosa Morandi
Eduardo, general of the Swedish army	contralto Contralto Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...	Carolina Cortesi
Giacomo, royal prince of Scotland	bass	Luciano Bianchi
Atlei, captain of the guard, friend of Eduardo	bass	Vincenzo Fracalini
Gustavo, small child of Eduardo and Cristina	silent

Recordings

Year	Cast (Carlo, Eduardo, Giacomo, Atlei)	Conductor, Opera House and Orchestra	Label
1997	Omar Jara, Eliseda Dumitru, Konstantin Gorny, Jorge Orlando Gómez	Francesco Corti, I Virtuosi di Praga (Recording of a performance at the Wildbad Festival, July)	Audio CD: Bongiovanni Cat: GB 2205/2206-2

External links

• Italian libretto at Karadar.com