Salvadore Cammarano, Calisto Bassi e «l’orditura del libretto» di Alzira

On August 12, 1845, Alzira, Giuseppe Verdi’s eighth opera, made its debut at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. Against the composer’s own expecta-tions, the opera—to a libretto by Salvadore Cammarano based on Vol-taire—proved a failure, getting only about 20 performances. Even subse-quent stagings (13 between 1845 and 1858) met with lukewarm reception. A year after the first performance, on August 17, 1846, Calisto Bassi, an experienced librettist and translator, sent some comments on the libretto and proposals for improvements to the publisher Tito Ricordi. In this con-tribution, I aim to discuss this hitherto unpublished letter as well as to re-flect on the dramaturgy of this opera and the reasons for its failure.