About the work
Sigismondo is a dramma per musica in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to a libretto by Giuseppe Maria Foppa, first performed on 26 December 1814 at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, with the title role sung by Maria Marcolini, a singer Rossini cast repeatedly at the time.
Plot
King Sigismondo of Poland is married to Aldimira, daughter of King Ulderico of Bohemia and Hungary. His minister Ladislao, rebuffed by Aldimira, plots revenge by having her escort stage a theft, making it look as though she has been unfaithful. Sigismondo condemns his wife to death, but she is secretly saved and lives in hiding. When Ulderico invades Poland to avenge her, the truth emerges, Ladislao's intrigue is exposed, and the couple is reconciled.
Cultural significance
The premiere was a failure; Rossini himself called the opera "a fiasco" in a letter to his mother. He later reused individual numbers in other works, including Adina. Sigismondo did not return to the stage until the Rossini Opera Festival revived it in Pesaro in 2010.