Tanti affetti (La donna del lago)

La donna del lago reached the Teatro San Carlo in Naples on 24 October 1819 and was the first Italian opera drawn from Walter Scott, whose Lady of the Lake had appeared in French translation shortly before. Andrea Leone Tottola's libretto keeps the Highland setting, the disguised king and the gathering of the clans; Rossini answered with horn calls, offstage choruses and a landscape written into the orchestration itself. The opening night was disrupted, but the work travelled quickly across Europe. It closes with a display rondò for the heroine, Tanti affetti, written for Isabella Colbran.