L'Italiana in Algeri

Glossary

Bey

an Osman Turkish word meaning Governor. The governors of the various provinces of North Africa under Ottoman rule were known as Beys, e.g. the Bey of Tunis. The area ruled from Algiers, however, was divided into three Beyliks (provincial governments) with Beys at Oran, Constantine, and Médéa, all of whom served under the Dey of Algiers. The Dey (the Turkish word for a maternal uncle), chosen by the members of the Turkish military garrison from among their number, was nominally the viceroy of the Sultan, but was in reality the absolute ruler over the city of Algiers and its three subordinate Beyliks. Mustafà should therefore properly have been called Dey, not Bey. There actually was a Dey by that name who ruled from 1798 - 1805, not long before the libretto was written.

cicisbeo

the recognized male companion, `cavalier servente,' of a married woman. Taddeo describes Lindoro as Isabella's cicisbeo in the recitative before the duet Ai capricci della sorte, then tells Haly in the first act finale that the Turk is becoming one. In the second act he confides to Lindoro (whom he does not recognize) that although Isabella was at one time still in love with her first lover, Lindoro, there is now no cicisbeo who could separate her from her Taddeo. The implication is quite clear, though it is never explicitly stated, that Taddeo is in fact Isabella's husband, and that he may also be a pappataci! The curious and ambiguous role of the cicisbeo in Italian society in the early nineteenth century is discoursed upon at length in Victorien Sardou's play Tosca, in a scene excised from the opera.

Elvira

The name Elvira is distinctly European, usually associated in opera with Spaniards. Lorenzo da Ponte took the name and character of Donna Elvira from Molière's play Don Juan; the corresponding lady in Tirso de Molina's Burlador de Sevilla was Isabela, in keeping with commedia dell'arte tradition. Other famous operatic Elviras are the Spanish heroine of Ernani and (improbably) Bellini's Scottish Puritan. In an early commedia dell'arte scenario involving a confrontation between Moors and Europeans, Flaminio Scala's La forsennata prencipessa, Alvira is the name of a Portuguese princess. Elvira was a Spanish town in Roman times, somewhere around modern Granada. Since Anelli used Turkish names for the other Algerians, one must assume that Elvira was intended to be portrayed as a Spanish slave of Mustafà's, not his Turkish or Berber wife.

Isabella

Isabella was one of the stock characters in 17th and 18th century Italian commedia dell'arte, the inamorata, often the daughter or wife of the buffoonish Pantalone. She may have taken her name originally from Isabella Andreini (1562 - 1604), one of the first and greatest actresses of the genre. Although the name was in common use (Rossini's first wife and the creator of ten of his contralto roles was Isabella Colbran), no one at the time could have missed the obvious connection with commedia dell'arte, a basic part of the lineage of opera buffa.

Kaimakan (in English: Kaimakam)

a Turkish word (from Arabic roots) for a viceroy, deputy, lieutenant, or other subordinate governor. It was specifically used to refer to the Grand Vizier and Governor of Constantinople, but is quite applicable to Taddeo's assigned role of deputy to the Bey.

Lindoro

An otherwise unusual name, it can scarcely be coincidental that it is also the nom de guerre assumed by the Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia; not the Rossini/Sterbini opera, of course, which was written 8 years after the libretto for L'Italiana, but the earlier and immensely popular opera by Paisiello (libretto by Giuseppe Petrosellini). Lindoro is simply an Italianization of Lindor, the name used in Beaumarchais' original drama. With its suggestion of a pretty young man it is distinctly Spanish sounding, as was appropriate for a play set in Seville. It is amusing to note the connection with Die Entführung aus dem Serail, in which the supposedly Spanish hero has the distinctly Italian name of Belmonte! Perhaps Lindoro is no more Italian than Elvira is Turkish.

Livorno (English: Leghorn)

a port on the coast of Tuscany, near Pisa, and opposite Corsica. The home of the Italians in the opera was a seafaring center in an area particularly prey to the depredations of Barbary pirates.

Mustafà

Mustapha or Mustafa is a common Turkish name; there were four Sultans of that name, including the reigning Sultan at the time the libretto of L'Italiana in Algeri was written. More to the point, there were also at least two Deys of Algiers named Mustafa, one of whom reigned from 1798 - 1805 and may have been involved in real events inspiring the story. The name was not uncommon in Italian drama for Oriental characters. There is a slave named Mustaffà (along with an Isabella of course) in Li Duo Vecchi Gemelli, one of Flaminio Scala's famous collection of commedia dell'arte scenarios.

Pappataci

one who, loving an undisturbed existence, thinks only of eating and daily pleasures with no concern for honor; in particular one who accepts humiliating situations for base reasons, such as a husband who tolerates and even profits from his wife's infidelity. This colorful and peculiarly Italian term is derived from the words pappare, `to gobble or guzzle' (cf. English pap), and tacere, `to be silent': figuratively, `eat and shut up.'

Taddeo

Although one is immediately reminded of Tonio's stage persona in Pagliacci, the character of Taddeo does not figure in traditional commedia dell'arte. This is not surprising, since it is the name of one of the Apostles (Thaddeus is identified with Jude). It is possible that the name could have been used for one of the characters at a later date, and the character of Taddeo in the opera is certainly in the tradition of Pulcinello. In the 1815 Naples production of L'Italiana in Algeri (under the wishy-washy title Il Naufragio felice), Taddeo's name was changed to Pompeo.

© Richard S. Bogart, 1998

26 September, 1998