Elisa e Claudio, ossia L'amore protetto dall'amicizia (Elisa and Claudio, or Love Protected by Friendship) is a two-act melodramma semiseria by the 19th Century Italian composer Saverio Mercadante from a libretto by Luigi Romanelli based on the play, Rosella by Filipo Casari. It received its premiere performance at La Scala in Milan on 30 October 1821.
Mercadante began to compose operas in 1819, and Elisa was his seventh. It "was his first great success, and his only comedy to maintain its place alongside the serious works of his later years.[1]
- ^ Rose 1998, p. 37