La pietra del paragone

La pietra del paragone (The Touchstone) is an opera, or melodramma giocoso, in two acts by Gioachino Rossini, to an original Italian libretto by Luigi Romanelli.

La pietra del paragone was first performed at La Scala, Milan, on 26 September 1812. It was the composer's first commission from a major opera house and was an instant success, being performed 53 times during its first season.

Napoleon's Viceroy in Milan, Eugène de Beauharnais, was so impressed by the opera that he wrote to the Minister of the Interior, "You will kindly arrange for Maestro Joachin Rossini to be exempted from military service. I cannot take it upon myself to expose to the enemy's fire such a precious existence; my contemporaries would never forgive me. We are perhaps losing a mediocre soldier, but we are surely saving a man of genius for the nation."

The first performance of the opera in Rio de Janeiro was in 1826. Despite its early success in Europe the work did not receive its North American premiere until 1955 and the British professional premiere was at the St Pancras Town Hall in 1963. In more recent times, Eduardo De Filippo and Paolo Tomaselli directed a production for the Piccola Scala in 1982, which later toured to the Edinburgh International Festival and the Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo. At various times, the cast included Margherita Guglielmi, Julia Hamari, Alessandro Corbelli, Claudio Desderi and Justino Díaz, conductor Roberto Abbado.

...
Wikipedia