About the work
Tragedia lirica in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti to a libretto by Felice Romani, who had written the text after Lord Byron's narrative poem 'Parisina' (1816) – originally intended for Vincenzo Bellini before it went to Donizetti. The commission dates from May 1832, but the finished libretto reached Donizetti only in mid-February 1833, leaving him just a few weeks to compose and rehearse before the premiere, postponed to 17 March 1833, at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence; for some numbers he reused material from his earlier flop 'Ugo, conte di Parigi'.
Plot
Parisina, the second wife of Duke Azzo d'Este of Ferrara, is secretly in love with Ugo, his son from his first marriage. When Azzo discovers their affection after Parisina talks in her sleep, he has Ugo executed. On seeing Ugo's beheaded body, Parisina dies.
Cultural significance
Donizetti composed 'Parisina' in the same year as 'Lucrezia Borgia' and 'Torquato Tasso' and reportedly valued this dark, psychological opera above all his roughly seventy works. Contemporaries praised its tender, elegiac music; the opera was performed often over the following two decades before falling into neglect, and it is only rarely staged today.