VOLUME 10 – Lyrical Operas

Comedy in one Act

The one-act comedy “Il Maestro Smania” set to music the text of Antonio Ghislanzoni which had already been used at the end of the XIX century by another composer from Bergamo, Cesare Clandestini. The opera, completed in 1930, was presented in 1963 at the competition organized in Lecco on the occasion of the seventieth anniversary of the death of the librettist.

The work was judged positively, but not performed due to difficulties during the preparation.

Instead, Promessi Sposi of Petrella was performed.

Finally, on the occasion of the centenary of composer Daniele Maffeis’s birth, il Maestro Smania was performed in concert form, at the “Donizetti” Theater of Bergamo.

The score includes three solo voices without chorus; the reference to Falstaff and Gianni Schicchi

is inevitable, stimulating a discourse with a decisive step, without useless lyrical delays. The musical text is published in two separate files, score and sheet music.