Giovanna Gray is a tragic opera (tragedia lirica) in three acts composed by Nicola Vaccai.

The libretto by Carlo Pepoli is based on the last days of the English noblewoman Lady Jane Grey who was executed for treason in 1554.

As a vehicle for one of the reigning prima donnas of the day, the tragic story of Lady Jane Grey was an apt one and had been the inspiration for numerous plays, poems, and paintings.

Donizetti had thought of using it when his opera Maria Stuarda ran into trouble with the censors in Naples and Milan.

[1] Vaccai's librettist, Carlo Pepoli, based the libretto on Nicholas Rowe's 1715 play The Tragedy of Lady Jane Grey.

[4] Giovanna Gray premiered at La Scala on 23 February 1836 in a production with sets designed by Baldassarre Cavallotti and Domenico Menozzi and lavish costumes by Giovanni Mondini.

[5] The audience applauded Malibran's performance, if not the opera itself, although applause did break out briefly for Vaccai after the orchestral introduction and at the end of the opening chorus.

The critics complained that the opera was over-long and boring and that the four main characters (three of whom are dead by the end) failed to generate much sympathy from the audience.

The critic from Glissons n'appuyons pas noted that Malibran gave her all to a role which was very long and tiring, but in vain.

La Moda wrote that "it seems impossible that Maestro Vaccai, who lacks neither intelligence nor experience, would consent to set a mess like this to music.

"[9] Shortly after the premiere, Casa Ricordi published several excerpts from the opera as sheet music, including the duet sung by Giovanna's husband and father in Act 2, Volgi il guardo intorno (Look around you), and Giovanna's final cavatina of the opera, "Cara deh!

In April 1836, Teatri, arti e letteratura reported rumours that Giovanna Gray would be performed in London by Malibran at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden and by Giulia Grisi at the Italian Opera House.

In Giovanna's apartments her ladies-in-waiting, some of them playing harps, sing praises to her beauty, learning, and virtue.

In a vast gallery, the courtiers and privy councilors discuss the news of Giovanni Dudley's defeat in the battle with Mary's supporters and worry about their own fate.

Guilford enters and joins Enrico in his lament at the betrayal and Mary's impending victory: "Volgi il guardo intorno" (Look around you).

In a lengthy finale, Giovanna accepts her fate, asks that only she be punished and that her husband and father be spared.

Source:[14] In reporting the poor reviews received by Giovanna Gray, the Revue et gazette musicale de Paris expressed astonishment that such an interesting and tragic subject had not been set by a composer capable of making it a dramatic success and suggested Meyerbeer, Rossini, or Halévy as possibilities.

[1] Timoteo Pasini's version, Giovanna Grey, set to a libretto by Giovanni Pennacchi, had a "triumphant" premiere at the Teatro Comunale in Ferrara in 1853 with Luigia Abbadia in the title role.

Giuseppe Menghetti's Giovanna Gray, which re-used Pepoli's libretto and premiered in Trieste during the carnival season of 1859, was soon forgotten.

[1] Arnold Rosner tackled the subject with The Chronicle of Nine, composed in 1984 to a libretto based on the stage play of the same name by Florence Stevenson.