A prolific composer, at just over 20 years of age Giovanni Pacini wrote the first of a staggering 90 operas in a career lasting 44...

A prolific composer, at just over 20 years of age Giovanni Pacini wrote the first of a staggering 90 operas in a career lasting 44 years and covering a wide range of styles. He worked with Rossini, achieved success quickly with his own operas and was the subject of much gossip over an affair with Paolina Bonaparte which went on mainly between Viareggio and Lucca, where Pacini settled. Having nailed his colors to the Borbone mast in Lucca, Pacini fell from grace for a time but came back to even greater professional success with his appointment as director of the San Carlo opera house in Naples. Renowned in his day, Pacini was however soon out-shone by Bellini and Donizetti and although he continued to write operas, he devoted more and more time to teaching. Pacini's output was not wholly original, often mannered and hurriedly put together yet it includes several gems such as Saffo, Medea a Corinto and this Il Convitato di pietra, a farce in two acts which its composer always called an ''operetta''. Pacini explicitly took Mozart's masterpiece Don Giovanni as his model and created a parody of it. There is no Donna Elvira, however, and several scenes traditionally featuring her now centre - at the cost of some suffering to the plot - on the character of Zerlina. In line with standard practice, the servant takes a new name - in this case Ficcanaso, i.e. Nosey - and the opera shifts its centre of interest from the relationship between Man and God to teh world of women and relations between father and son, since the characters are supposed to be members of the composer's family. The opera is written well, properly constructed on the lbiretto by Gaetano Barbieri and is not without difficulties for the performers, even when they were members of the composer's own family. The score calls for a chamber orchestra, comprising four first and four second violins, two violas, a cello, a double-bass and two flutes, and a small male choir with the part for the tenors often divided into two lines. The opera is particularly suited to performance in small venues but requires highly capable singers. The libretto is light-footed and clearly inspired by the many Don Giovanni that had gone before, from Mozart-Da Ponte down. The recitatives are spoken but speech is also used for events of major importance, for instance the attempted rape. The storyline is simplified and Zerlina carries great weight and replaces Donna Elvira in several scenes. Her great importance in the plot turns this character from a naive country girl into a cunning, calculating woman along the lines of Goldoni's Elisa. Shortly before the finale she also has an aria for a prima donna of great worth. It makes an ideal concert aria for a coloratura soprano: overall, teh role demands a light, soubrette-style voice with a great range and considerable agility. The aria for Donna Anna, ''Care sponde'' and the tuneful aria for the tenor are both instances of Pacini's compositional abilities at their best. Indeed, overall the music is competent and confident, light-footed and holds the listener's interest.