page_title: Il corsaro
section_title: Performance history
hierarchical_section_title: Il corsaro / Performance history
caption_attribution_description: Català: Soprano Marianna Barbieri-Nini
context_page_description: Il corsaro is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi, from a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on Lord Byron's 1814 poem The Corsair. The first performance was given at the Teatro Grande in Trieste on 25 October 1848.
context_section_description: 19th century
  Lucca decided on the Teatro Grande (now the Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi) in Trieste as the location for the Spring 1848 premiere, but political events in Lombardy postponed it until the autumn. The opera house management felt that Muzio would be capable to handling the staging, but having fled to Switzerland, he became unavailable and the task was handled by Luigi Ricci who, along with his brother Federico, were minor composers of the day.  Verdi did not attend the first performance. However, Verdi's biographer Mary Jane Phillips-Matz feels that Lucca chose a good house and a cast "almost as good as anyone could have mustered in Europe at the time."  In addition, she quotes from a long letter which Verdi wrote to the soprano Marianna Barbieri-Nini, who had been his Lady Macbeth at the 1847 premiere of that opera. In the letter, Verdi said that he wanted "to tell you a few things about your pieces", and gives her some very explicit advice on how to sing Gulnara.
  As it turned out, the opera was poorly received by both the press and the public in Trieste, an unusual occurrence for Verdi. Budden notes that it "vanished from the repertoire after three performances" and that the local feeling would have been that "Trieste deserves a better opera than this".
  Relatively few performances were given in Italy after the premiere, although it was staged in Milan and Turin in 1852, and in Modena, Novara, Venice, and Vercelli in 1853.
  20th century and beyond
  The opera was given its first performances in Britain (London) in March 1966 and in the USA in December 1981.
  It was presented as part of a Verdi Festival by the San Diego Opera in 1982 with Rosalind Plowright and June Anderson, and in 2004 by the Sarasota Opera as part of its "Verdi Cycle".   The Teatro Regio di Parma presented it in 2008 as part of their "Festival Verdi", while another company which aims to present all of the composer's operas, the ABAO in Bilbao, Spain, gave it in November 2010.
  In concert versions, it was given by the Liceu Barcelona and the Royal Opera, London in June 1996, Corrado having been sung by José Cura. The Opera Orchestra of New York presented it in March 2004.
  The Washington Concert Opera in Washington, D.C. presented a concert version in March 2014 with a cast including  Michael Fabiano as Corrado, Tamara Wilson as Gulnara, and Nicole Cabell as Medora. Fabiano starred in a new production of the opera in April 2018 at the Palau de Les Arts, Valencia.
caption: Marianna Barbieri-Nini
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