About the work
Comic opera (melodramma comico) in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti to a libretto by Felice Romani, who had originally written the text in 1818 for the composer Francesco Morlacchi. The story derives from a French tale by Claude Godard d’Aucourt de Saint-Just that had earlier served as the basis for François-Adrien Boieldieu's opéra-comique 'Jean de Paris' (1812). Donizetti composed the score around 1831 as an unsolicited gift for the tenor Giovanni Battista Rubini, who never staged it; the opera finally reached the stage, with Donizetti himself reportedly reluctant, at La Scala in Milan on 10 September 1839.
Plot
The heir to the French throne wants to meet his betrothed, a Navarrese princess, incognito before their wedding. Disguised as a wealthy merchant, he books an entire inn where the travelling princess and her retinue are also due to lodge. She sees through his disguise, and the resulting comedy of mistaken identity blossoms into a love story that ends in their marriage.
Cultural significance
Although the premiere ran for twelve successful performances under impresario Bartolomeo Merelli, the opera failed to enter the standard repertoire and was largely forgotten for a century and a half; it received its first modern revival in New York only in 1985.