About the work
Donizetti composed Otto mesi in due ore in 1827 as a romantic melodrama in three parts to a libretto by Domenico Gilardoni, drawing on Sophie Cottin's novel Élisabeth, ou Les exilés de Sibérie (1806) and Luigi Marchionni's stage adaptation of it. Its premiere on 13 May 1827 at the Teatro Nuovo in Naples was his first opera as the theatre's music director.
Plot
Elisabetta, daughter of Count Potoski, who has been unjustly exiled to Siberia, sets out on the perilous journey to Moscow to plead her family's innocence before the Tsar; along the way she survives pursuit by a former accuser, Tatar bandits and a flood, until she can deliver his written confession to the Tsar, who rehabilitates her father.
Cultural significance
The work became extraordinarily successful, running to around 50 performances in its first season and praised for its lavish stage machinery. A revised version with a new text by Jacopo Ferretti followed in Turin in 1835.