Lucia di Lammermoor

Lucia di Lammermoor opened at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples on 26 September 1835, on a libretto Salvadore Cammarano drew from Walter Scott's novel The Bride of Lammermoor. Donizetti wrote the mad scene with a glass harmonica accompanying the soprano; the player left the theatre in a dispute and the part was rewritten for flute, which is how it was played for the next century and a half. The glass harmonica version has been restored to the stage only in recent decades. The opera made Donizetti's international reputation.