About the work
Donizetti composed Chiara e Serafina (in full, Chiara e Serafina, ossia Il pirata) in 1822 as a two-act melodramma semiserio to a libretto by Felice Romani, based on René Charles Guilbert de Pixerécourt's melodrama La citerne. It premiered on 26 October 1822 at Milan's Teatro alla Scala — Donizetti's first commission for that house.
Plot
The daughters of Captain Don Alvaro, abducted by pirates, Chiara and her younger sister Serafina, fall under the power of the unscrupulous Don Fernando, who as guardian schemes to seize Serafina's fortune. Only when their returning father intervenes are the sisters freed from an old cistern and the family reunited.
Cultural significance
Despite twelve performances, the premiere played to a half-empty house amid political unrest under Austrian occupation; the opera then disappeared from the stage for roughly two centuries until its rediscovery by the Donizetti Festival in Bergamo in 2022.