About the work
Clari is an opera semiseria in three acts by Fromental Halévy to an Italian libretto by Pietro Giannone. It premiered in December 1828 at the Théâtre-Italien in Paris, with Maria Malibran in the title role – Halévy's first opera in Italian.
Plot
The naive country girl Clari is brought into a duke's household on a promise of marriage and seduced there; when he fails to keep his word, she flees back to her family, who at first reject her out of shame. Only when the duke follows her and reveals his true feelings does the opera reach a reconciliation and a happy ending.
Cultural significance
The title role, which stretches Malibran's roughly three-octave range, earned the singer a respectable reception from the premiere audience; the work itself, however, failed to establish itself and disappeared from the schedule after only a few performances. It was not until about 180 years later, in 2008, that Cecilia Bartoli brought the opera back to the stage at the Zurich Opera House to mark the bicentenary of Malibran's birth.