Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
Un giorno di regno
Melodramma giocoso in due atti.
Libretto di Felice Romani
Melodramma giocoso in due atti.
Libretto di Felice Romani
Verdi’s early production includes an opera, Un giorno di regno, that had a particularly unlucky fate. After the success of his first opera, Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio, Verdi was given by the impresario Bartolomeo Merelli the task of composing a comic opera for the Teatro alla Scala; but this work coincided with the death of his wife, which took place shortly after the death of his two sons. The levity of the subject-matter of this opera was inevitably incompatible with Verdi’s grief. His opera was a complete fiasco at the premiere of 5 September 1840, in Milan, and was withdrawn that very evening. The newspapers were particularly cruel with the composer, so much so that almost twenty years later Verdi, in a letter to his publisher Tito Ricordi, wrote that they had mistreated “the work of a poor young man who was ill, rushed, and devastated by a horrible calamity”. In the same letter, Verdi added that, even supposing that Un giorno di regno was a bad opera, many others “that were no better than it have been tolerated and maybe even applauded”. Five years after its first night, after Verdi had met with a real triumph with Nabucco, Un giorno di regno was quite successful in Venice at the Teatro San Benedetto. As a matter of fact, to present-day listeners, this opera is far from being as disastrous as it has been considered for many years.