• Simon Mayr. Farsa sentimentale in one act. 1805.
• Libretto by Gaetano Rossi, after Jean-Nicolas Bouilly’s libretto Léonore, ou L’Amour conjugale.
• First performance at the Teatro Nuovo, Padua, on 26th July 1805.

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CHARACTERS

Zeliska (Malvino)	soprano
Amorveno, her husband	tenor
Floreska, daughter of Peters	soprano
Peters, the gaoler	bass
Moroski, the Prison Governor	bass-baritone
Ardelao, Amorveno’s brother	tenor

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The story is that of Beethoven’s Fidelio. The gaoler Peters has taken a young man, Malvino (in fact Zeliska), into his house as assistant. The gaoler’s daughter, Floreska, falls in love with him and wants to marry him, a match of which Peters approves. Zeliska’s motive, however, is to see her husband Amorveno, imprisoned by the prison Governor Moroski, who is in love with her. Amorveno’s brother Ardelao is on his way to reveal Moroski’s crime, precipitating the latter’s attempts to kill his victim, relying on Peters for this. In the prison Amorveno languishes, realising that he will stay in his cell until he starves to death. He only wants to see his wife Zeliska for one last time Peters and Zeliska (still disguised as Malvino) enter the cell. While Peters prepares Amorveno for a quick death, Zeliska struggles with her tears. Moroski appears to see how Peters is carrying out his task. As Peters cannot bring himself to kill Amorveno, Moroski must do it himself. Zeliska tries to stop him and reveals her true identity. She tells Moroski that he can only kill Amorveno if he kills her too. At this Moroski breaks down: he cannot and will not kill the woman he loves. While Amorveno and Zeliska are overjoyed at meeting again, Ardelao appears. As a deus ex machina he rescues the couple and condemns Moroski.

Mayr’s opera, staged in the same year as Beethoven’s Fidelio, is one of several based on Bouilly’s libretto, itself derived from an incident that he had come across during the Reign of Terror. The others are by Paër (1804), by Gaveaux (1795), and by Cherubini in 1800, in Les Deux Journées (The Two Days).