Ambleto

Ambleto is an opera in three acts by Francesco Gasparini with a libretto by Apostolo Zeno and Pietro Pariati.

[1][2] It was possibly one of the earliest operas written on the subject of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, but uninfluenced by it,[3] and the first in Italian.

[4] The original cast was Nicolò Grimaldi (Ambleto), Maria Domenica Pini (Veremonda), Lorenzo Santorini (Fengone), Maria Maddalena Bonavia (Gerilda), Vittoria Costa (Ildegarde), Pasqualino Betti (Valdemaro) and Domenico Fontani (Siffrido).

[3] A bilingual libretto produced by Jacob Tonson was published at the same time, and a collection of songs from the opera later in the year.

[4] Zeno and Pariati did not claim to have used Shakespeare's work as their source, and the libretto they created tells a story somewhat different from the English drama.

Frontispiece of the libretto for Gasparini's Ambleto
Cast list from the 1706 production of Ambleto
Collection of songs from the 1712 London production of Ambleto