Enrico di Borgogna
Role Voice type Premiere Cast , 14 November 1818 ( Conductor : )
Brunone baritone Giuseppe Fioravanti
Elisa mezzo-soprano Adelina Catalani
Enrico contralto Fanny Eckerlin
Geltrude soprano Adelaide Cassago
Guido tenor Eliodoro Spech
Gilberto bass Andrea Verni
Nicola tenor Pietro Verducci
Pietro tenor Giuseppe Fusconi
Roles
Enrico di Borgogna (Henry of Burgundy) is an opera eroica or heroic opera in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Bartolomeo Merelli (who later, as Intendant at La Scala, was to commission Verdi's first opera), wrote the Italian libretto based on Der Graf von Burgund by August von Kotzebue. Enrico di Borgogna was the third opera composed by Donizetti, but the first to be performed. It premiered on 14 November 1818 at the Teatro San Luca in Venice. In spite of difficulties at the premiere, the critic of Nuovo osservatore veneziano noted of Donizetti that one cannot but recognize a regular handling and expressive quality in his style. For these, the public wanted to salute Signor Donizetti on stage at the end of the opera. For the first time in 192 years, the opera was presented at the Vadstena Academy in Sweden in July/August 2012.