Da Lidia di Brabante a Niccolò de' Lapi. Le vicende di un'opera di Giovanni Pacini

Abstract

Amongst the extensive production of Giovanni Pacini, his last work was Niccolò de' Lapi, a tracic opera in three acts preformed posthumously at the Pagliano Theatre in Florence on October 29, 1873. The composer refers to this opera on page 124 of his Memorietogether with other compositions, which - in his words - «lie imprisoned like lifeless bodies on the shelves of my small musical archive». However, he does not mention the motivation for the opera, nor when it was composed. On the occasion of the performance in Florence, critics showed a certain interest in some parts of Niccolò de' Lapi, although generally considering the music old-fashioned by them.
Extensive research and anlyse of letters, librettos, autographs and of reports published in the press of that time have made it possible to reconstruct the troubled story of this opera: in fact, it was originally conceived as Lidia di Brabante to be performed at the Carolino Theatre in Palermo in the Spring of 1853, but was withdrawn for reasons which remain unclear. The score went through several phases, with many changes and additions: La punizione (performed in Venice in 1854), Lidia di Bruxelles (in Bologna in 1858), Ser Matteo Vanelli and finallyNiccolò de' Lapi, to which Pacini never referred in his autobiography.
Therefore, the present research aims to contribute to our knowledge of Pacini's works by correcting some inaccuracies of the Memorie, and by providing important and useful data for compiling a complete catalogue of the composer's work.