The ballet premiere was part of a special Salute to Italy, which also included the premiere of "Variations from Don Sebastian", called the "Donizetti Variations" since 1961, and performances of Balanchine's "La Sonnambula" and Lew Christensen's "Con Amore".
 It was first performed in conjunction with "Movements for Piano and Orchestra" in 1965, and this practice has been followed almost consistently since 1966, with the same leading female dancer in both in most performances.
 The ballet has three parts, each of just over two minutes duration.
 NYCB principal dancer Darci Kistler chose to include "Monumentum pro Gesualdo" in her farewell performance, Sunday, June 27.
La somnambule is a ballet-pantomime composed by Ferdinand Hérold and premiered on 19 September 1827 at the Académie Royale de Musique.
 The scenario was by Eugène Scribe, and it was choreographed by Jean-Pierre Aumer.
 This ballet was produced in 1827 at the height of a fashion for stage works incorporating somnambulism.
 The work was quite popular in Paris and inspired many more works incorporating somnambulism, including Vincenzo Bellini's well-known Italian opera "La sonnambula".
La sonnambula "(The Sleepwalker)" is a ballet by the co-founder and ballet master of New York City Ballet, George Balanchine, made to Vittorio Rieti's music using themes from the operas of Vincenzo Bellini including "La Sonnambula", "Norma", "I Puritani" and "I Capuleti e i Montecchi" (1830–35) and with costumes by Karinska.
 The premiere took place with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo on Wednesday, 27 February , at City Center of Music and Drama, New York; the City Ballet premiere was on 6 January 1965.
La sonnambula ("The Sleepwalker") is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the "bel canto" tradition by Vincenzo Bellini set to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on a scenario for a "ballet-pantomime" written by Eugène Scribe and choreographed by Jean-Pierre Aumer called "La somnambule, ou L'arrivée d'un nouveau seigneur".
 The ballet had premiered in Paris in September 1827 at the height of a fashion for stage works incorporating somnambulism.
CastaDiva is a 5 star luxury resort located in Blevio in the province of Como, Italy.
 The heart of the resort consists of the Roccabruna Villa, which was once the home of soprano Giuditta Pasta and where the composer Vincenzo Bellini wrote his two most famous works: La Sonnambula and Norma.
Tenore di grazia , also called leggero tenor ("graceful" and "light" tenor, respectively), is a lightweight, flexible tenor voice type.
 The tenor roles written in the early 19th-century Italian operas are invariably leggero tenor roles, especially those by Rossini such as Lindoro in "L'italiana in Algeri", Don Ramiro in "La Cenerentola", and Almaviva in "Il barbiere di Siviglia"; and those by Bellini such as Gualtiero in "Il pirata", Elvino in "La sonnambula" and Arturo in "I puritani".
 Many Donizetti roles, such as Nemorino in "L'elisir d'amore" and Ernesto in "Don Pasquale", Tonio in "La fille du régiment", are also "tenore di grazia" roles.
 One of the most famous leggero tenors of that period was Giovanni Battista Rubini, for whom Bellini wrote nearly all his operas.
Antonino Votto (30 October 1896 - 9 September 1985) was an Italian operatic conductor.
 Votto developed an extensive discography with the Teatro alla Scala in Milan during the 1950s, when EMI produced the bulk of its studio recordings featuring Maria Callas.
 Though Votto was a dependable conductor (and the teacher of Riccardo Muti), critics frequently faulted his recordings for their lack of emotional immediacy.
 This may have been an occupational hazard of working in the studio, as his live sets with Callas, including a "Norma" (December 1955, La Scala) and "La sonnambula" (1957, Cologne) are considered to be great performances.
Emma Nevada (née Wixom) (7 February 1859 – 20 June 1940) was an American operatic soprano particularly known for her performances in operas by Bellini and Donizetti and the French composers Ambroise Thomas, Charles Gounod, and Léo Delibes.
 Considered one of the finest coloratura sopranos of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, her most famous roles were Amina in "La sonnambula", and the title roles in "Lakmé", "Mignon", "Mireille", and "Lucia di Lammermoor.
Maskarade ("Masquerade") is an opera in three acts by Carl Nielsen to a Danish libretto by Vilhelm Andersen, based on the comedy by Ludvig Holberg.
 It was first performed on 11 November 1906 at Det Kongelige Teater, Copenhagen.
 "Maskarade" has enjoyed enduring popularity in Denmark where it is considered to be the country's national opera.
Loretta Di Franco is an American operatic soprano who is chiefly known for her more than 900 performances at the Metropolitan Opera from 1961-1995.
 Originally a member of the Met's opera chorus, she eventually was promoted to singing small comprimario roles beginning with one of the pages in Wagner's "Tannhäuser" and the peasant girl in "The Marriage of Figaro" in 1961.
 She went on to win the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 1965 which led to her first substantial role, Chloe in "The Queen of Spades".
 She continued to appear annually at the Met for the next 30 years, performing both leading and supporting roles.
 Some of the parts she performed at the Met included Annina in "La traviata", both the Aunt and Barena in Janáček's "Jenůfa", Barbarina and Marcellina in "The Marriage of Figaro", Berta in "The Barber of Seville", Countess Ceprano in "Rigoletto", the Dew Fairy and the Sandman in "Hansel and Gretel", Feklusa in "Káťa Kabanová", the First Lady in "The Magic Flute", the Flower Seller in Britten's "Death in Venice", Frasquita in "Carmen", Gerhilde in "Die Walküre", Giannetta in "L'elisir d'amore", Helen in "Mourning Becomes Electra", Ines in "Il trovatore", Jouvenot in "Adriana Lecouvreur", Kate Pinkerton in "Madama Butterfly", Laura in "Luisa Miller", Lauretta in "Gianni Schichi", Lisa in "La sonnambula", Marianne in "Der Rosenkavalier", Marthe in "Faust", Musetta in "La bohème", Oscar in "Un ballo in maschera", Samaritana in "Francesca da Rimini", Woglinde in both "Das Rheingold" and "Götterdämmerung", Xenia in "Boris Godunov", Zerlina in "Don Giovanni", and title role in "Lucia di Lammermoor".
 In 1991 she created the role of the Woman with Child in the world premiere of John Corigliano's "The Ghosts of Versailles".

Question: Which play has more acts, La sonnambula or Maskarade?
Answer: Maskarade