- Ponchielli’s opera La Gioconda premiered at La Scala on April 8, 1876.
- The libretto, by Arrigo Boito, was adapted from Victor Hugo’s Angélo, tyran de Padoue.
- La Gioconda is set in Venice, and Ponchielli took advantage of this to use many Venetian musical styles in the work, including barcarolles, and Italian dances, the most famous of which is the Danza della ore (Dance of the Hours), written for a ballet sequence. This music is far and away the most famous example of ballet music from an Italian opera – ballet was much more common in French opera than in Italian.1
- Synopsis of La Gioconda from the Metropolitan Opera.
Sources
- Julian Budden, Fedele D’Amico, and Licia Sirch, “Ponchielli, Amilcare,” Grove Music Online (January 20, 2001), accessed March 25, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000022074.
Cut IDs
40854 43430 14566 17364