Abstract
Bellini composed Adelson e Salvini as his final project at the Real Collegio di musica di San Sebastiano, where the opera was first staged between 10 and 15 February 1825. For his earliest theatrical work, belonging to the tradition of Neapolitan opera ‘alla francese’, the composer could rely on an existing libretto by Andrea Leone Tottola, previously set to music by Valentino Fioravanti in 1816. The subject derives from François-Thomas-Marie de Baculard d’Arnaud’s Adelson et Salvini. Anecdote anglaise (1772), via Prosper Delamare’s mélodrame Adelson et Salvini (1803), which served as Tottola’s main source for the libretto. Around 1826, Bellini revised the opera in view of a production at the Teatro del Fondo with a professional cast, a project that, however, never materialized. After reconstructing the historical and cultural context in which Bellini composed Adelson e Salvini, this article offers a comparative analysis of the literary sources, Tottola’s libretto, Fioravanti’s setting, and the two Bellinian versions of the opera, with particular attention to the genre transformations that shaped its development: from Baculard d’Arnaud’s tragic tale, rooted in the so-called genre sombre, through the mélodrame, to Neapolitan opera semiseria ‘alla francese’. The final section examines a third version of the opera, probably not attributable to Bellini in its entirety, and advances some hypotheses concerning its genesis.
Keywords
Adelson e Salvini, opera semiseria, Tottola, Fioravanti, riscrittura.
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