Gaetano Donizetti | Autograph manuscript of the aria 'Io talor più nol rammento' from "Sancia di Castiglia", 1832, unpublished in a modern edition

Gaetano Donizetti.

Autograph manuscript of Sancia's aria, with female chorus, "Io talor più nol rammento" from the opera Sancia di Castiglia, UNPUBLISHED IN A MODERN CRITICAL EDITION

the composing manuscript of the complete musical number (not including the preceding recitative) from Act I scene 3, scored for piccolo, flutes, oboes, clarinets, horns, trumpets, bassoons, trombones, timpani, and strings, notated in brown ink on a single 20-stave system, the scoring in eight bars of the closing orchestral ritornello indicated by means of letters and repeat signs, some scribal entries in the upper margin of the first pages ("e [sic] vero [the closing words of the preceding recitative] Originale [...] Cavatina Sig.^a De Begnis Sancia e [sic] di Castiglia Doniz[etti]"), with numerous autograph cancellations, revisions, corrections and additions, INCLUDING A NUMBER OF ALTERNATIVE VERSIONS OF SOME BARS OF THE VOCAL PART

14 pages, large oblong 4to (c.26.6 x 37.5cm), 20-stave paper, some sporadic possibly autograph gathering numbers, modern pencil pagination ("1"-"14"), no place or date [Naples, 1832], modern quarter calf, gilt lettering to spine ("Donizetti Sancia di Castiglia MS"), a few small stains and browning to first and last pages, outer edges trimmed, a few old repairs, leaves strengthened and repaired at hinge, pinholes

The two-act opera seria Sancia di Castiglia was written in the autumn of 1832 for the Teatro San Carlo, Naples, the score being dedicated to Donizetti's former teacher, Johann Simon Mayr, a clear indication that the composer set some store by the music. As William Ashbrook notes, the opera 'combines the tradition of spagnuolismo, popular at the Bourbon court in Naples, with the emphasis on pathos and suffering that was a Donizettian speciality'. While the suggestion has been made by Natale Gallini that the present score was written for a later performance of the opera, it would seem in fact that it was part of the autograph score of the very first version of the opera (this score, which lacks the current aria, is preserved in the library of the Conservatorio di Musica San Pietro a Majella, Naples).

The leading role of Sancia, the tragic, widowed Queen of Castile, who at the behest of Ircano, a Saracen prince, almost has her son drink poison, only to drink it herself, was one of a number such roles written especially for the famous Italian soprano Giuseppina Ronzi de Begnis (1800-1853) (others include those in Fausta, Maria Stuarda, Gemma di Vergy and Roberto Devereux).

We are pleased to acknowledge the kind assistance of Professor Roger Parker in our cataloguing of this lot.

LITERATURE:

Natale Gallini, 'Inediti donizettiani', Rivista musicale italiana, lv (1953), pp.257-275; William Ashbrook, Donizetti and his operas (1982), p.333; idem, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, iv, p.162 (entry for Sancia di Castiglia)