About the work
La Lodoiska is Johann Simon Mayr's second opera, a drama in three acts to a libretto by Francesco Gonella di Ferrari, based on an episode from Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvray's novel Les Amours du chevalier de Faublas — the same source that underlies Cherubini's opera Lodoïska (1791). It premiered on 26 January 1796 at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice.
Plot
The shared literary source, also used in Cherubini's version, tells of Lodoiska's rescue from a despotic nobleman by her lover — a rescue plot typical of the years around 1790.
Cultural significance
The three-act original version received thirteen further performances in its premiere season. Mayr later revised the work into a two-act version with more musical numbers, which opened at La Scala in Milan on 26 December 1799.