Donizetti was not given the opportunity to compose again for La Scala until writing Ugo, conte di Parigi nearly a decade later.

The commission for Chiara e Serafina came about not long after the successful premiere of the farsa La lettera anonima in Naples.

A likely reason for the opera's lack of popularity, besides the haste in which it was composed, was a major treason trial in Milan; this kept the public from visiting theaters, which were being watched by police.

He wrote to his old teacher, Simone Mayr: "I suggest that you bring a Requiem to the performance, for I shall be slaughtered, and thus the funeral rites can be taken care of.

Don Fernando is secretly his enemy, and has engineered things so that his disappearance appears to be treason, for which he has been convicted in absentia.

Picaro disguises himself as Don Alvaro and presents himself to the lovers; believing her father found, Serafina is persuaded to postpone her wedding.

In search of their leader, the pirates storm the castle, capturing Don Meschino, Lisetta, and Chiara.