Donizetti, Gaetano

about the last Queen of Cyprus, giving detailed instructions to the librettist Giacomo Sacchèro, about the changes needed to the opera, now that in his plans for the revision Caterina’s lover Gerardo (tenor) will die before the end of the opera, defending Cyprus against the Venetians, explaining that he would almost prefer the curtain to come down after the tenor’s final aria, rather than having him lying around dead, but that it would be more affecting to to have a scene between Caterina and her dying husband Lusignano, the King of Cyprus (bass), mortally wounded in the fighting, in which he tells her that Gerardo died during the assault and begging her forgiveness for the unhappiness that she has suffered; Donizetti also expands the King's part, asking for a new cabaletta in his entrance aria, more lines for him in the quartet and a duet with Caterina before the final battle, where he declares he loves her and will die with her name on his lips

"...Indi si cangi scena, e venga l’aria del Tenore--alla fine non va bene che resti lì morto, dunque quasi vorrei far calar la tela con un sol grido da Lei, ma parmi saria tenero l’abbraccio d’un morente ad una sposa, in 4. versi per tutti e due. E per renderli interessante è necessario dire che l’amante è morto, ma, gliel deve dire il rè morendo chiedendogli perdono di sofferti patimenti etc. Sai la mia divisa?...”



3 pages, 8vo (c.18.5 x 11.8cm), blind-stamped initials ("G.D."), integral autograph address panel,  postmarks ("Wien [?]9. Mar:" etc), remains of red seal, [Vienna, c.9 March 1844],

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This important undated letter is published in Studi donizettiani I (1962), but assigned to 1843. Donizetti here describes his plans for a revised ending to Caterina Cornaro, where the tenor hero has died in battle and the opera ends with a tender farewell between the soprano and bass. The composer admits to mistakes regarding the failure of the opera at the San Carlo, Naples, on 18 January 1844, which he did not attend, so he never actually heard the music.  He was in Vienna throughout the first half of 1844, staging Dom Sébastien at the Kärtnertortheater.  The following winter, he revised the music for Caterina Cornaro and it was finally heard in its more successful definitive version at Parma on 2 February 1845. Caterina Cornaro was Queen of Cyprus from 1474 to 1489.  In fact there was no battle: Caterina was persuaded to sell Cyprus to the Venetians and spent her remaining twenty years back home in Venice.  Her palace in Potamia still survives, but as a ruin.

see also: W. Ashbrook Donizetti and his Operas (1982), pp.181-183, where the letter is dated 1843 (following the version in Studi donizettiani, 1, no.99, p.94)