# La romanziera e l'uomo nero

La romanziera e l'uomo nero (also known as La romanzesca e l'uomo nero) is an 1831 one-act farsa with music by Gaetano Donizetti and an Italian libretto by Domenico Gilardoni, possibly based on the 1819 play La donna dei romanzi by Augusto Bon. Other suggested sources include L'homme noir (1820) by Eugene Scribe and Jean-Henri Dupin and Le coiffeur et le perruquier (1824) by Scribe, Édouard-Joseph-Ennemond Mazères and Charles Nombret Saint-Laurent.

## Performance history

The opera was premiered on 18 June 1831 at the Teatro del Fondo, Naples, and there was only one further performance. The words and music of the arias and ensembles have survived, but the spoken dialogue has been lost. The opera's music was performed in 1982 at the Camden Festival, and in Fermo in 1988. In November 2000, staged performances took place in Rovigo with dialogue re-created by Michelangelo Zurletti from the Scribe plays on which the opera may have been based.
Of this work Ashbrook writes:
    The plot is a satire on Romanticism: in the rondo-finale Antonina assures her father that she will give up willows, cypresses, urns and ashes, and take up more appropriate pursuits like singing and dancing and going to the opera.
He also points out that Filidoro's canzonetta is a parody of the Gondolier's song from Rossini's Otello.

## Roles

| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast, 18 June 1831 |
| The Count (il Conte) | bass | Gennaro Ambrosini |
| Antonina, his daughter | soprano | Luigia Boccabadati |
| Chiarina, his niece | mezzo-soprano | Marietta Gioia-Tamburini |
| Fedele, hoping to marry Chiarina | tenor | Francesco Salvetti |
| Carlino, the son of a friend of the Count | tenor | Lorenzo Lombardi |
| Filidoro, the man in black (l'uomo nero) | baritone | Antonio Tamburini |
| Tommaso, his uncle | bass | Gennarino Luzio |
| Trappolina, Antonia's governess | soprano | Anna Manzi-Salvetti |
| Giappone, the Count's majordomo | bass | Tauro |
| Nicola, a servant | bass | |

## List of musical numbers

| Scene | Description | Performed by | First lines of sections |
| 1 | Introduction | Giappone, Carlino, Il Conte, Fedele, Chiarina, Trappolina, Tommaso | "Vi prego, avanti avanti" ... "M'insulta, corbella!" |
| 2 | Cavatina | Antonia, Tommaso, Trappolina | "Oh Elodia solitaria" |
| 3 | Canzonetta | Filidoro | "Non v'e maggio dolore" |
| 3 | Duet | Antonia, Filidoro | "Ciel! Fia ver? Mio Filidoro!" ... "Ahi la mia nascita" ... "Fuggir da queste mura" |
| 4 | Trio | Tommaso, Chiarina, Fedele | "Cinque sensi appena nato" ... "L'occhietto semi-chiuso" |
| 5 | Duet | Chiarina, Filidoro | "Che paura! Che paura!" ... "Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!" |
| 6 | Trio | Nicola, Antonia, Tommaso/ Tommaso, Nicola, Trappolina | "Fuggiam, fuggiam!" ... "Ei stresso! La mia vittima" ... "Destrieri infocati" |
| 7 | Rondo finale | Antonia, Conte, Fedele, Carlino, Filidoro/ Filidoro, Antonia, All | "Si, colpevole son io" ... "Lascio l'ombre ed I fantasmi" |

## Recordings

| Year | Cast: (Antonia, Chiarina, Fedele, Carlino, Filidoro, Tommaso) | Conductor, Orchestra, Chorus | Label |
| 2000 | Elisabetta Scano, Adriana Cicogna, Bruce Ford, Paul Austin Kelly, Pietro Spagnoli, Bruno Praticò | David Parry, Academy of St Martin in the Fields | Audio CD: Opera Rara Cat: ORC19 |
| 2000 | Patrizia Cigna, Claudia Marchi, Giovanni Gregnanin, Patrizio Saudelli, Alessandro Calamai, Gian Paolo Fiocchi | Franco Piva, Orchestra Filarmonica Veneta "G. F. Malipiero", Coro del Teatro Sociale di Rovigo | Audio CD: Bongiovanni Cat: GB 2287/88-2 (2 CDs) Recorded live on 25 and 26 November 2000 |