Donizetti and Cammarano chose the subject of Pia de Tolomei to showcase the vocal talents of the virtuosic Fanny Persiani, who was to be the prima donna star at the Teatro Fenice in Venice for the Carnival season of 1836-7. The two men negotiated with Lanari, impresario to that theater, for a suitable subject and cast for their new opera. When told that Persiani would sing, they decided to find a gentle, unassuming heroine, one who would arouse the sentimental sympathies of the Venetian audience by her simplicity and purity. Pia's story comes from Dante's Purgatorio, and was retold in a novella by Bartolomeo Sestini. Two plays of the time, one by Giacinto Bianco and another by Carlo Marenco, were also used as sources for the libretto. Donizetti and Cammarano composed and wrote their opera around the central character of Pia, but she obviously did not inspired the warm blooded Donizetti. he composed his finest, most energetic and interesting music for the tenor villain Ghino, and for the jealous baritone Nello. One of the highlights of the opera is a duet between these two men, as Ghino attempts to drive Nello to murderous fury in the second act. Pia's death throes leave one almost indifferent. But Ghino's death scene is an extended tableaux, a dramatic highpoint, containing a tortured final confession and a moving cabaletta.

On December 12, 1836, the Teatro La Fenice burned to the ground, and Donizetti was told that his opera would premiere at the Teatro Apollo instead. Pia opened on February 18, 1837, and was a moderate success. Although there were several productions in the nineteenth century and revivals in the twentieth, the work remains centrally flawed in its concentration on the character of the prima donna. However it contains one of Donizetti's finest roles for the tenor voice, and much fine music.

© Rita Laurance, All Music Guide