La pastorella nobile (The Noble Shepherdess) is an commedia per musica [1] in two acts by Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi.
La pastorella nobile was first performed at the Teatro del Fondo in Naples on 15 or 19 April 1788 with Irene Tomeoni, the creator of the title role of La bella pescatrice as the shepherdess Eurilla.
Productions followed in Italy and elsewhere, including London, Paris, Madrid, Dresden and Prague, sometimes under the title L'erede di Belprato.
Adriana Ferrarese and Francesco Benucci, the first Fiodiligi and Guglielmo in Così fan tutte sang the roles of Donna Florida and Don Polibio, in a version that apparently enhanced the importance of Donna Florida, probably through a revision by Lorenzo Da Ponte, Mozart's librettist and Ferrarese's lover.
However the later arrival on the scene of Tomeoni (to sing Eurilla) led to the restoration of the original version.