Jacopo Ferretti
Introduced
by his father to literature while very young, in addition to his native
Italian, Ferretti mastered not only Latin and Ancient Greek but also French and
English, and began writing verse early. Even though he worked in the tobacco
industry from the age of about 30 until he was over 60, he was extremely
prolific, writing "everything from love letter to odes and welcoming
speeches", and numerous opera libretti.
His first
big success was La Cenerentola, written at great speed for Rossini over
Christmas in 1816. Ferretti married the singer Teresa Terziani in 1820, and
their house was continually visited by musicians and poets, including Donizetti
who had been given a letter of introduction to Ferretti by Johann Simon Mayr.
They became good friends after Donizetti arrived in Rome in October 1821 for
the preparation of the production of his Zoraida di Granata, which became his
first major success. Ferretti worked on revising Bartolomeo Merelli's libretto
for the opera.
Among his most
successful librettos are Mercadante’s Scipione in Cartagine, Rossini’s La Cenerentola and Matilde di Shabran, Pacini’s Cesare in Egitto, Il nuovo Figaro
and Donizetti’s Zoraida di Granata, L’ajo nell’imbarazzo, Il furioso all’isola
di San Domingo and Torquato Tasso.