18th Century CE RPF+1
Le Donne di Llangollen
by El Staplador (elstaplador)
With Le Donne di Llangollen Rossini returned to the theme of young love outwitting familial opposition that had served him so well with Il Barbiere di Siviglia. He may perhaps have been recalling Beethoven's advice to him never to write anything but opera buffa. Hoping to capitalise on the success that Donizetti had enjoyed with operas set in the British Isles, and that of his own La Donna del Lago, he and Gaetano Rossi borrowed the details of a noted scandal. So noted, in fact, that nobody ever questions the fact that the Ladies never reach Llangollen within the action of the opera. It doesn't matter. We all know how it ends.