• Giuseppe Verdi. Tragedia lirica in a prologue and two acts. 1845.
• Libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, after Voltaire’s Alzire ou Les Américains (Alzire or The Americans).
• First performance at the Teatro S Carlo, Naples, on 12th August 1845.

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CHARACTERS

Alvaro, father of Gusmano, Governor of Peru	bass
Gusmano, son of Alvaro & his successor as Governor	baritone
Ovando, a Spanish duke	tenor
Zamoro, a Peruvian tribal leader	tenor
Ataliba, a Peruvian tribal leader	bass
Alzira, his daughter	soprano
Zuma, her maid	mezzo-soprano
Otumbo, an American warrior	tenor

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Set in 16th-century Peru, the opera Alzira opens with a prologue in which Alvaro, a prisoner of the Peruvians, is released at the command of their returning leader Zamoro, himself cruelly treated before as a prisoner of Gusmano. The latter succeeds his father as Governor of Peru and proclaims peace with his former prisoner Ataliba, whose daughter Alzira he claims in marriage. She, however, remains in love with Zamoro, in spite of her father’s pleas. The lovers are found together and Gusmano orders Zamoro’s execution, but at the approach of the opposing army, releases him, in return for his father’s earlier release. In the second act the Incas are defeated by the Spaniards and Zamoro, again a prisoner, is again condemned to death, to be released if Alzira will marry Gusmano, a bargain to which she agrees. Otumbo claims to have engineered Zamoro’s release, but when the latter reappears among his men he is furious to learn of Alzira’s coming marriage. At the wedding in the Governor’s palace, Zamoro, disguised as a Spanish soldier, bursts in and stabs Gusmano to death. Dying, the latter is magnanimous, forgiving Zamoro and blessing his union with Alzira.

Important as the first collaboration between Verdi and the librettist Cammarano, Alzira was not in other respects particularly successful and has not held its place in operatic repertoire. Later collaborations with Cammarano were La battaglia di Legnano (The Battle of Legnano) in 1849, Luisa Miller for Naples later the same year and, in 1853, Il trovatore (The Troubadour).