Mona Lisa (opera)

In the spring of 1913, Beatrice von Dovsky presented the libretto to the composer, who prepared a piano sketch during the following summer.

The subject was very topical at the time, because the painting by Leonardo da Vinci had been stolen from the Louvre in 1911, and rediscovered in Florence in 1913.

[1] The North American premiere took place at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on 1 March 1923, Artur Bodanzky conducting, with Barbara Kemp, Michael Bohnen (both making their Met debut) and Curt Taucher in the principal roles.

A lay brother tells them the history of the house and its occupants, among them Fiordalisa Gherardini, Francesco Giocondo's wife painted by Leonardo da Vinci.

A procession led by the courtesan Ginevra passes, but the preacher Savonarola together with a chorus of monks interrupts the Carnival activities with a call to do penance.

Giovanni has come on behalf of the Pope to purchase a pearl form Francesco's famous collection, which is kept in a shrine specifically designed in a way that no one can breathe in it for longer than an hour.

Francesco plays a diabolical game with Lisa, pretending not to have noticed anything, intentionally misinterpreting her unrest and fear for Giovanni's life as love and desire.