Gaetano Donizetti – Critical Editions

The Operas of Gaetano Donizetti
Published by Casa Ricordi with the collaboration and contribution of Fondazione Donizetti, Bergamo
General editors:
Gabriele Dotto, Roger Parker

Full score with critical commentary included:
hardbound volumes, 26 x 36,5 cm (Historical Introduction and critical commentary in Italian and English)
Piano vocal score:
paper bound, 20 x 27 cm (Historical Introduction and critical commentary in Italian and English)

The musical and literary texts of many of Donizetti’s operas, as they have come down to us, pose numerous problems. These are due in part to the inevitable accumulation of layers of changes made by generation after generation of interpreters, whose tastes were ever further from the musical and dramatic aesthetics of Donizetti’s times. Changes, often made with the best of intentions, were motivated in some cases by the urge to modernize the orchestration, the phrasing or even the structure of some pieces; in other cases by the demands of local censorship or by the need to shorten the works or otherwise alter the structure for pragmatic reasons. Sometimes interpolations of extraneous material where made to accommodate the wishes of performers.

In this climate, and in the background of an ever-burgeoning “Donizetti Renaissance” in which almost all of the composer’s nearly seventy operas have been revived in the last forty years, a critical edition was badly needed. For these reasons Casa Ricordi, with the collaboration and contribution of the Comune di Bergamo, began the Donizetti Critical Edition in 1988.

The current project does not aim toward the publication of the complete operas, but rather seeks to offer a wide variety and complexity of Donizetti’s works for the theatre. Operas still in the repertory are of course included, but the series also publishes a selection of lesser-known titles that, for historical or musical reasons, are particularly significant for a better understanding of Donizetti’s career and the historical context in which he worked. While Donizetti’s critical edition has exceeded thirty years of activity, many of its scores have become the standard for performance.

Anna Bolena
Edited by Paolo Fabbri (2017)

Betly
Edited by Ellen and Julia Lockart (2011)

Il campanello
Edited by Ilaria Narici (1994)

Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali
Edited by Roger Parker, Anders Wiklund (2002)

Deux hommes et une femme (Rita)
Edited by Paolo A. Rossini with the collaboration of Francesco Bellotto (2008)

Dom Sébastien
Edited by Mary Ann Smart (2004)

La Favorite
Edited by Rebecca Harris-Warrick (1997)

La fille du régiment
Edited by Claudio Toscani (2021)

Linda di Chamounix
Edited by Gabriele Dotto (2006)

Lucia di Lammermoor
Edited by Roger Parker and Gabriele Dotto (2021)

Lucrezia Borgia
Edited by Roger Parker and Rosie Ward (2019)

Maria di Rohan
Edited by Luca Zoppelli (2011)

Maria Stuarda
Edited by Anders Wiklund (1991)

Les Martyrs
Edited by Flora Wilson (2016)

Pia de’ Tolomei
Edited by Giorgio Pagannone (2007)

Poliuto
Edited by William Ashbrook, Roger Parker (2000)

Roberto Devereux | already available for hire
Edited by Julia Lockhart (by 2023)

Caterina Cornaro
Edited by Eleonora Di Cintio (by 2026)

Esule di Roma
Edited by [tba] (by 2026)

Don Pasquale
Edited by Roger Parker, Gabriele Dotto (by 2026)

La figlia del reggimento | rent this work at Zinfonia
Edited by Claudio Toscani (2009)

Adelia | rent this work at Zinfonia
Edited by Roger Parker (1997)

Elisir d’amore
Parisina
Duca d’Alba