This presentation will chronicle the great interest of Italian composers Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini, and others in the French novels, dramas, and plays by Voltaire, Corneille, Beaumarchais, Hugo, Dumas fils, Scribe, Sardou, and Murger. This literature inspired the adaptations of those authors’ works into some of the greatest and most popular Italian operas, as well as operas commissioned to Italian composers to be written in French which were premiered in France.

Presentation by John Zaretti, president of Verdi Opera Theatre of Michigan, with musical illustrations performed by singers chosen from the Department of Voice.

Co-sponsored by the U-M Romance Languages Department.