1. A truncated version of this article was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Musicological Society, Kansas City, Missouri, in November 1999. I am grateful to Philip Gossett, Roger Parker, and James Hepokoski for their thoughts and advice. Additionally, I wish to thank Luigi Ferrara at the Cini Foundation, Venice, for his assistance with the vast number of librettos housed in that collection. The research and writing of this article were made possible by fellowships from the Gladys Kreible Delmas Foundation and the American Association of University Women.
2. 1 Meyerbeer composed the slow movement, "Ah, come rapida fuggi la speme," for a revival of Il crociato in Egitto that occurred at the Thetre Italien, Paris in 1825. The singer for whom he wrote it was Giuditta Pasta, who, as I shall show below, performed it in many operatic contexts throughout her career. A score for Nicolini's cabaletta, "Or che son vicino a te," is located as an appendix in Gioachino Rossini, Tancredi, ed. Philip Gossett, 2 vols. (Pesaro, 1984), II, 808-18. The libretto where I gathered the evidence for Tosi's performance is: Otello / ossia / Il Moro di Venezia / dramma tragico / in tre atti / da rappresentarsi / nel Teatro Carlo Felice / La primavera del 1828 / { } / Dalla Tipografia dei Fratelli Pagano / Piazza Nuova N. 43 (I:Vgc). This libretto records slight alterations in the cabaletta's text. Instead of "Or che son vicino a te," it begins "Ah! gia son vicino a te." Small alterations of this sort are not at all unusual when arias are interpolated into new operatic contexts.
3. 2 I use "interpolation" as a general term to mean the act of introducing an aria not belonging to the "authentic" version of an opera into a revival of that work. Under this broad heading fall more precise terms such as "substitution" (in which an interpolated piece replaces an aria from the score) and "addition" (when, as in the case of Desdemona's opening moments in Otello, singers insert an aria without removing any material from the opera).
4. I know that you are having some troubles in Bresciaa . Listen to the advice of a friend: if you are disposed to making some sacrifices in order to obtain calmness (the greatest of all possessions) then do it, but take care to have at least one aria that is suited to you and in which your abilities may shine; if you turn down this necessary privilege, I would label your docility foolishness.3
5. -Violante Camporesi to Giuditta Pasta,