Donizetti - Don Gregorio
Paolo Bordogna, Elizaveta Martirosyan
"Don Gregorio" is an opera which has been adapted from another very popular opera buffa "l'Ajo nell'imbarazzo", from a libretto by Jacopo Ferretti. While L'ajo nell'imbarazzo enjoyed success at teatro Valle, it was not suited to the Teatro Nuovo in Naples, where Francesco Tortoli was interested in producing it. Donizetti signed a contract with Tortoli to adapt L'ajo nell'imbarazzo into a new opera, "Don Gregorio", and to compose one further opera. For the adaptation of L'ajo nell'imbarazzo, Donizetti would revise the recitatives into spoken dialogue and converted all Don Gregorio's dialogues from Italian into Neapolitan dialect. Such spoken dialogues have been reconstructed after an important rare manuscript has been found, which was probably the source used. The opera premiered at the Teatro Nuovo on 11 June 1826 under the new name of Don Gregorio and subsequently at La Scala .
