Opulent Tone

Gaetano Donizetti was not only a master of bel canto, but also a master of opera buffa, a type of comic opera derived from the Italian tradition of Commedia dell'arte. As early as the sixteenth century, troupes of professional players traveled throughout the land performing Commedia dell'arte on temporary stages, most of them erected on city streets. Subsequently, the art form spread even more widely and many of its elements can still be recognized today. Several of the roles in Donizetti's melodramma giocoso, L'elisir d'amore, are variations on the Commedia's traditional stock characters...