Zoraida di Granata
Zoraida di Granata is a two-act melodramma eroico by Gaetano Donizetti. The Italian libretto, partly prepared by Bartolomeo Merelli, drew on Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian's 1791 play Gonzalve de Cordoue ou Grenade Reconquise and on Luigi Romanelli's libretto for Giuseppe Nicolini's Abenamet e Zoraide.
When Donizetti arrived in Rome, carrying a letter of introduction from his teacher and mentor Johann Simon Mayr to poet and librettist Jacopo Ferretti, he secured his help in revising Merelli's text.
Although it was Donizetti's first theatrical success "and the opera in which he began to adopt 'Rossinian' techniques", the original 1822 version of this violent love story was never given a complete performance because Amerigo Sbigoli, the tenor originally cast in the role of Abenamet, died shortly before the first night, with no replacement available. Donizetti quickly adapted this role for contralto, though omitting three numbers in the process.
The first performance took place at the Teatro Argentina, Rome, on 28 January 1822 and it and its composer received great acclaim in the weekly Notizie del giorno:
The opera was presented in a revised edition at the same theatre on 7 January 1824, and given a revival in Lisbon in 1825.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, 28 January 1822 |
| Almuzir, King of Granada | tenor | Domenico Donzelli |
| Almanzor, friend of Abenamet | bass | Gaetano Rambaldi |
| Zoraida, in love with, and loved by, Abenamet | soprano | Maria Ester Mombelli |
| Abenamet, General of the Moors | originally tenor | Amerigo Sbigoli |
| Ines, a Spanish slave and friend of Zoraida | mezzo-soprano | Gaetana Corini |
| Aw Zegri | bass | Alberto Torri |