Composed in 1822, La Zingara was Donizetti's first opera for the Neapolitan stage. The premiere took place at the Teatro Nuovo on May 12, 1822. The first run lasted for 28 performances, and then later in the year it was produced a second time in a run that lasted almost equally as long. Andrea Leone Tottola wrote the libretto, which is based on La petite bohemienne by Caigniez. The opera's plot concerns a rather blithe gypsy heroine, who continually rescues people and sets wrong situations right. She of course turns out to be the long lost daughter of one of the main characters, and all ends happily. Perhaps the most important thing that came out of the production of this opera for Donizetti, apart from its immense success with the Naples public, was his working relationship with the famous Neapolitan buffo singer Carlo Cassaccia. Cassaccia was famous throughout the operatic world for his creation of buffo roles. The Neapolitans adored him. There was an old tradition, peculiar to their city, in which the buffo characters sang in Neapolitan street dialect. The characterization, the text, and the music for the buffo was set apart from the rest of the opera by its use of the bass voice, its particular brand of humor, and its use of dialect, understood, for the most part, only by those from Naples. Donizetti learned how to compose for a buffo character in the Neapolitan style from Cassaccia during the preparation for the production of La Zingara.

© Rita Laurance, All Music Guide