page_title: I puritani
section_title: Performance history
hierarchical_section_title: I puritani / Performance history
caption_attribution_description: English: Grisi and Lablache in I puritani 1835 London
context_page_description: I puritani is an opera by Vincenzo Bellini. It was originally written in two acts and later changed to three acts on the advice of Gioachino Rossini, with whom the young composer had become friends. The music was set to a libretto by Count Carlo Pepoli, an Italian émigré poet whom Bellini had met at a salon run by the exile Princess Belgiojoso, which became a meeting place for many Italian revolutionaries.
  The subject was Têtes Rondes et Cavaliers, a historical play written by Jacques-François Ancelot and Joseph Xavier Saintine, which some sources state was based on Walter Scott's 1816 novel Old Mortality, while others state that there is no connection.
  When Bellini arrived in Paris in mid-August 1833, he had intended to stay only about three weeks, the main aim being to continue the negotiations with the Paris Opéra which had begun on his way to London a few months earlier. However, these negotiations came to nothing, but by October he had decided to spend the winter in that city, especially as both Il pirata and I Capuleti e i Montecchi were to be given by the Théâtre-Italien that season.
context_section_description: 19th century
  The opera became "the rage of Paris" and was given 17 performances to end the season on 31 March.
  Herbert Weinstock's chapter on I puritani devotes four pages to details of performances which followed the premiere in Paris, although the Théâtre-Italien gave it over 200 times up to 1909. In 1835, London saw it in May, La Scala (in what Weinstock thinks as being a "pirate edition") in December. In Palermo it was given as Elvira e Arturo during the following season and La Fenice presented it in April 1836 as I puritani e i cavalieri with Giuseppina Strepponi as Elvira. It took until January 1837 before it was seen at the San Carlo in Naples; Messina saw it in 1838. Weinstock recounts details of hundreds more, including being given in Rome in 1836 as Elvira Walton, and during that year he details performances in Berlin, Vienna, Madrid, and Bologna (with Giulia Grisi as Elvira). Between 1836 and 1845 (with no details provided before 20th century performances are discussed), the opera was presented every year in different cities.
  20th century and beyond
  Details from 1906 forward are provided by Weinstock. In that year the opera appeared at the Manhattan Opera House in New York, followed by stagings at the Metropolitan Opera in February 1917, but in New York it was not revived for many years. Various performances are reported to have taken place in 1921, 1933, 1935, and 1949 in different European cities, but it was not until 1955 in Chicago that Puritani re-appeared in America with Maria Callas and Giuseppe Di Stefano in the major roles. The 1960s saw a variety of performances in the years between 1960 (Glyndebourne Festival with Joan Sutherland which was recorded) and 1969 when Weinstock's account ends. However, he does include a section on performances from the 19th century forward at the Royal Opera House in London up to Joan Sutherland's 1964 assumption of the role of Elvira. The article's "Recordings" section indicates some other performances which may have been recordings of live performances, although the one DVD from the Metropolitan Opera in January 2007 came from a Metropolitan Opera Live in HD presentation.
caption: Grisi and Lablache in I puritani, King's Theatre, London, 1835
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