Il giovedì grasso

Il giovedì grasso is a farsa in one act by Gaetano Donizetti, from a libretto by Domenico Gilardoni. The libretto was adapted from the French comedies Monsieur de Pourceaugnac by Molière and Le nouveau Pourceaugnac by Charles-Gaspard Delestre-Poirson and Eugène Scribe. The opera uses spoken dialogue rather than recitatives, and the buffo role is given in the Neapolitan language. The work premiered at the Teatro del Fondo in Naples on 26 February 1829.

Roles

Synopsis

Time: 17th century

Place: "A house in the country, outside Paris"^[1]

The lovers Nina and Theodore are desperate since Nina is promised to Ernesto, a simple village boy. Sigysmondo, who is in his private life jealous of his own wife for false suspicions and believes that Ernesto is a fool, is their friend and decides to help them. Knowing that Ernesto will come exactly when Nina's father, the Colonel, will be in Paris, offers everyone to dress up like in "Cruel Thursday of abundance": He himself will be an imaginary friend from Ernesto's past and Camilla will be a former lover betrayed by Ernesto. Stephanina who isn't familiar with the Ernesto, is the one who opens the door to Ernesto and innocently tells him about the people and their scheme. Ernesto decides to fight back, refers to Sigismondo as to his friend and to Camilla as his former and betrayed lover, which allegedly confirms Sigismondo's suspicions. He also sends an urgent letter to the Colonel asking him to return home as soon as possible. Only when the Colonel is back Ernesto confesses to everyone that he, the simple village boy, is the one who had fooled them and let the lovers get married.

Recordings

References

Notes

Sources

• Ashbrook, William (1983). Donizetti and His Operas. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-27663-2. 
• Holden, Amanda (Ed.), The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York: Penguin Putnam, 2001. ISBN 0-140-29312-4
• Osborne, Charles, The Bel Canto Operas of Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini, Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press, 1994 ISBN 0931340713
• Weinstock, Herbert, Donizetti and the World of Opera in Italy, Paris, and Vienna in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century, New York: Pantheon Books, 1963. ISBN 63-13703