La donna del lago to Naples in early June with no projects in the offing, except to become involved with overseeing a new production of his "La gazza ladra" there. Also, a commission from Milan's La Scala for an opera, which would become "Bianca e Falliero", had been offered and was planned for December of that year. Suddenly, the Italian composer Gaspare Spontini withdrew from a commitment to write two operas for the Naples house that season, thus leaving a huge gap. Rossini was quickly asked to write an opera for a September premiere; rather than use an existing libretto, the house insisted upon
Jone (opera) ask Nidia to flee with them. But she returns to the city to die, while the lovers escape. Jone (opera) Jone, ossia L'ultimo giorno di Pompei is an opera in four acts by Errico Petrella. The Italian-language libretto was by Giovanni Peruzzini, after Edward Bulwer-Lytton's famous novel "The Last Days of Pompeii". The opera was premiered at La Scala on 26 January 1858. It was an immediate success, not only all over Italy, but in the rest of the world as well. It remained in the repertory for close to 50 years, being last given in Caracas in 1981. This