Adelson e Salvini

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Adelson e Salvini (Adelson and Salvini) is a three act opera buffa composed by Vincenzo Bellini and first performed at the Teatro del Conservatorio di San Sebastiano in Naples on February 12, 1825. The libretto was by Andrea Leone Tottola.

Bellini's first opera was written as his final project at the Naples San Sebastiano Conservatory, when the composer was 23 years old. It was the custom at the Conservatory to introduce promising students to the public with a dramatic work. Bellini syled his project an opera semiseria. It was presented at the Conservatory's theater. Adelson e Salvini is based on the 1772 novel Épreuves du Sentiment by François-Thomas-Marie de Baculard d'Arnaud, and the opera draws on a previously performed play by Prospère Delamare. Bellini's score does not bring out much of the humor of the piece. Nevertheless, the work was so popular among the Conservatory's student audience that it was performed every Sunday for a year. It was successful enough to generate a commission from the royal court, and it captured the interest of the impresario Domenico Barbaja of the San Carlo Opera, who launched Bellini's career, commissioning him to write his next work, Bianca e Gernando.

Bellini greatly revised the opera for another production in 1829, and later revised it further. Although much influenced by the music of Rossini, this early piece exhibits some of the characteristic tuneful style and delicate vocal line that Bellini achieved in his mature works. Bellini used some of the music from the opera in later works. Domenico De Meo further revised and edited the score of Adelson to prepare it for its' 1992 production at the Teatro Bellini in the composer's hometown, Catania, in Sicily. The following year, the Italian label Nuova Era issued Adelson e Salvini on two compact discs.

The opera is set in Ireland in the 17th Century. It concerns the friendship of the Anglo-Irish Lord Adelson with a young Italian painter, Salvini, who falls in love with Nelly, the beautiful fiancé of the wealthy and powerful Adelson. The plot proceeds to a curiously murderous twist.