Opera semiseria Opera semiseria Opera semiseria ('semi-serious opera') is an Italian genre of opera, popular in the early and middle 19th century. Related to the opera buffa, opera semiseria contains elements of comedy but also of pathos, sometimes with a pastoral setting. It can usually be distinguished from tragic operas or melodramas by the presence of a basso buffo. One of the better-known examples is Gaetano Donizetti's "Linda di Chamounix". Another example is Gioacchino Rossini's "La gazza ladra". Vincenzo Bellini's "La sonnambula" has all the characteristics of the genre except the presence of the required basso buffo and is regarded as both
Academy of Music (New York City) role and Giuseppe Mario as Pollione headlining the performance under Max Maretzek's baton. The first season's repertoire was ambitious, and included "Semiramide" and "The Barber of Seville" by Rossini; "Norma" and "La Sonnambula" by Bellini; and "Don Pasquale", "Lucrezia Borgia", "La Favorita" and "Lucia di Lammermoor" by Donizetti. Maretzek's company performed an annual season at the Academy through 1878. His company was not the only group active at the opera house as the theater during this time. Musicologist George Whitney Martin writes: New York's Academy of Music, from 1854 to 1883 the city's leading house for opera, did not offer