Antonio Somma (28 August 1809,

Udine Udine ( , ; fur, Udin; la, Utinum) is a city and ''comune'' in north-eastern Italy, in the middle of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic Sea and the Alps (''Alpi Carniche''). Its population was 100,514 in 2012, 176,000 with t ...

– 8 August 1864,

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

) was an Italian playwright who is most well known for writing the libretto of an opera which ultimately became Giuseppe Verdi's ''

Un ballo in maschera ''Un ballo in maschera'' ''(A Masked Ball)'' is an 1859 opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The text, by Antonio Somma, was based on Eugène Scribe's libretto for Daniel Auber's 1833 five act opera, '' Gustave III, ou Le bal masqué''. Th ...

'' in 1859. While a student, his tragedy, ''

Parisina ''Parisina'' is a 586-line poem written by Lord Byron. It was probably written between 1812 and 1815, and published on 13 February 1816. It is based on a story related by Edward Gibbon in his '' Miscellaneous Works'' (1796) about Niccolò III d ...

'', gave him quite a success. Initially, his contact with Verdi came about when the composer was seeking to continue work on his proposed ''

Re Lear ' (; Italian for ''King Lear'') is an Italian operatic libretto in four acts written by Antonio Somma for the Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi. It was based on ''King Lear'', "the Shakespeare play with which Verdi struggled for so many ye ...

'', an adaptation of the

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

play, ''

King Lear ''King Lear'' is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare. It is based on the mythological Leir of Britain. King Lear, in preparation for his old age, divides his power and land between two of his daughters. He becomes destitute and insane ...

'', for the opera stage which had begun under his long-time collaborator

Salvadore Cammarano Salvadore Cammarano (also Salvatore) (born Naples, 19 March 1801 – died Naples 17 July 1852) was a prolific Italian librettist and playwright perhaps best known for writing the text of ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' (1835) for Gaetano Donizetti. For ...

who had died. Under Verdi's supervision, Somma wrote the libretto for ''Re Lear'', a project that Verdi never realised musically although extensive work was done and a full libretto completed to the point where Verdi was considering this to be the opera he wrote for Naples for the 1858 season.Budden 1984, pp. 362–363 However, ''Ballo'' had a troubled history and, originally, Somma wrote the libretto under the title of '' Gustavo III''. As a result of required changes by, firstly, the Bourbon

censors Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

and, then, the Papal ones, it became transformed into ''Un vendetta in domino'' (with a different setting and characters' names).Letter to Somma, 7 February 1828 in Werfel and Stefan, p.207 Finally, for its Rome premiere, the opera became ''Un ballo in maschera'', but with another location change (this time to

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

in colonial times) and further title and name changes. Overall, Somma then specialized in stage plays and wrote no further libretti.

References

Notes Sources
Antonio Somma
Bio a
OperaGlass
*Budden, Julian (1984), "''Un ballo in maschera''", ''The Operas of Verdi'', Volume 2. London: Cassell, Ltd., pp. 360–423. * Gossett, Philip (2006), ''Divas and Scholars: Performing Italian Opera'' Chicago: University of Chicago. *Schmidgall, Gary (1985)
"Verdi's ''King Lear'' Project"
''19th-Century Music'', Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 83–101 *Werfel, Franz and Paul Stefan (ed. & selected; trans. Edward Downes) (1973), ''Verdi: The Man and His Letters'', New York: Vienna House. 1809 births 1864 deaths Italian opera librettists Italian dramatists and playwrights People from Udine Italian male dramatists and playwrights 19th-century Italian dramatists and playwrights 19th-century Italian male writers {{Opera-bio-stub