Giuseppina Ronzi de Begnis "La gazza ladra" for the grand inauguration of the newly built Teatro Nuovo in Pesaro. Rossini had grand ideas for the occasion and he wanted Isabella Colbran and Andrea Nozzari for a colossal production of his "Armida"; however budget constraints forced him to downsize his dreams, but when an attempt to secure his friend Rosa Morandi for "La gazza ladra" failed, he engaged Giuseppina Ronzi de Begnis and, at a reduced fee, her husband Giuseppe de Begnis as the Mayor. This move left him with enough money to engage a first class tenor like Alberico Curioni. In January 1819, Giuseppina
La casa disabitata in Dresden. The story is not original. The opera's title, plot, setting, and characters are the same as those of Giovanni Giraud's one-act farce "La casa disabitata", first performed in 1808 and published in 1825. Giraud's play was also the basis of the two-act opera "La casa disabitata", composed by Lauro Rossi to a libretto by Jacopo Ferretti. Rossi's opera premiered at La Scala to great success in 1834, a year before Princess Amalie's version, and was subsequently performed throughout Italy and in Paris. Princess Amalie's "La casa disabitata" was performed in the small court theatre of Pillnitz Castle on