Editing Gaetano Donizetti (section)

====Late July 1822 to February 1824: assignments in Milan and Rome====
On 3 August for what would become ''[[Chiara e Serafina]], ossia I pirati'', Donizetti entered into a contract with librettist [[Felice Romani]], but he was over-committed and unable to deliver anything until 3 October. The premiere had been scheduled for only about three weeks away and, due to the delays and illnesses among the cast members, it did not receive good reviews, although it did receive a respectable 12 performances.

[[File:Felice Romani.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Librettist Felice Romani]]

Returning north via Rome, Donizetti signed a contract for performances of ''Zoraida'' by the Teatro Argentina which included the requirement that the libretto to be revised by Ferretti, given Donizetti's low opinion of the work of the original Neapolitan librettist, [[Andrea Leone Tottola]]: he referred to it as "a great barking".<ref>{{harvnb|Weinstock|1963|p=37}}: Weinstock further asks the question as to why Donizetti spread "his energy and talent so thinly over so many compositions and continued to set librettos by Tottola and Giovanni Schmidt while conscious of their abysmal quality." Essentially, his answer is that the composer needed the money for his various commitments to his family, which included a younger brother and his parents.</ref> In addition to the revision, he committed to write another new opera for the Rome's Teatro Valle which would also be set to a libretto written by Ferretti. Donizetti finally returned to Naples by late March.{{sfn|Ashbrook|1982|p=29}}

Immediately busy in the spring months of 1823 with a cantata, an ''opera seria'' for the San Carlo, and an ''opera buffa'' for the Nuovo, Donizetti also had to work on the revised ''Zoraide'' for Rome. Unfortunately however, the music set for the San Carlo premiere of ''[[Alfredo il grande]]'' on 2 July was described in the ''Giornali'' as "...one could not recognize the composer of ''La zingara''". It received only one performance, while his two-act ''farsa'', ''Il fortunato inganno'', given in September at the Teatro del Fondo, received only three performances.

In October and for the remainder of the year, he was back in Rome, where he spent time adding five new pieces to ''Zoraida'', which was performed at the Teatro Argentina on 7 January 1824. However, this version was less successful than the original. The second opera for Rome's Teatro Valle also had a libretto by Ferretti, one which has since been regarded as one of his best.{{sfn|Ashbrook|1982|p=31}} It was the ''opera buffa'' ''[[L'ajo nell'imbarazzo]]'' (''The Tutor Embarrassed''), the premiere of which took place on 4 February 1824 and "was greeted with wild enthusiasm [and] it was with this opera that [...] Donizetti had his first really lasting success".<ref name="Osborne">{{harvnb|Osborne|1994|p=156}}</ref> Allitt notes that with a good libretto to hand, "Donizetti never failed its dramatic content" and he adds that "Donizetti had a far better sense of what would succeed on the stage than his librettists".<ref name=ALL27/>