About the work
Gasparone is an operetta in three acts by Carl Millöcker to a libretto by Friedrich Zell and Richard Genée. It premiered on 26 January 1884 at the Theater an der Wien. Its title character, a notorious bandit who never appears on stage, was inspired by the real Italian brigand Antonio Gasbarrone (1793–1882).
Plot
Around 1820, Count Erminio Saluzzo travels to Sicily to study Mount Etna and falls for the widowed Countess Carlotta. The smuggler Benozzo spreads rumors about the bandit Gasparone to cover his own dealings, while the bumbling mayor Nasoni suspects Erminio of being the bandit himself and wants Carlotta to marry his son Sindulfo to secure her inheritance. Erminio stages Carlotta's kidnapping in order to "rescue" her, has Sindulfo fake-kidnapped, and even robs Carlotta himself disguised as Gasparone, before revealing himself as the interior minister's son and returning her fortune.
Cultural significance
For decades only heavily reworked versions of Gasparone were performed, until conductor Hans-Dieter Roser reconstructed the original score for the Kassel State Theatre in 1973.