# Mozart meets Bellini



## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Lorenzo da Ponte's translation of Bellini's _Pirata_: https://ia902707.us.archive.org/9/items/pirateamelodram00romagoog/pirateamelodram00romagoog.pdf

Bloody, as they say, hell.


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## angelo (Jun 20, 2017)

Da Ponte choosed to swap the last scenes: here we have before the madness of the soprano, and the opera closes with the farwell of the tenor (the short final scene of the sucide is -as usually- skipped): probably Chesnut Street Theatre had a better tenor than soprano.

Lirics of this opera in Italian are very effective: that is one of the qualities of this opera (which in my opinion cannot come to light with some tenors, however great singers, like Gregory Kunde who sings innatural in Italian)


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## Rossiniano (Jul 28, 2017)

I immediately went to the final scene to see if the ending used on the Opera Rara recording (and abscent from all scores that I have seen) was included. At first I thought it was, but as Angelo notes above on further inspection the final scenes as traditionally performed were switched. I guess it was decided to give Gualtiero as the titular Pirata the final word! 

However, it seems that the cabaletta given to Imogene either was different or or the libretto was modified at that point. I would guess that a different piece was chosen based on the whim of the prima donna. 

Either way this is most interesting. Plus, we often forget that Lorenzo da Ponte made his way to America!


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