Napoleon's Viceroy in Milan, Eugène de Beauharnais, was so impressed by the opera that he wrote to the Minister of the Interior, "You will kindly arrange for Maestro Joachin Rossini to be exempted from military service. I cannot take it upon myself to expose to the enemy's fire such a precious existence; my contemporaries would never forgive me. We are perhaps losing a mediocre soldier, but we are surely saving a man of genius for the nation."

Librettist Luigi Romanelli
Date of composition 1812
Premiered 1812, September 26th (La Scala) in Milan, Metropolitan City of Milan, Italy
First published 1846, Ricordi in Milan, Metropolitan City of Milan, Italy
Type Opera
Spoken language Italian
Instruments Orchestra
Voice (Bass) - Count Asdrubale
Voice (Contralto) - Clarice
Voice (Tenor) - Giocondo
Voice (Baritone) - Pacuvio
Voice (Mezzo-Soprano) - Donna Fulvia
Voice (Baritone) - Macrobio, a journalist
Voice (Soprano) - Baroness Aspasia
Voice (Bass) - Fabrizio
Autotranslations beta Gioachino Rossini: La pietra del paragone "Melodramma giocoso in due atti"
Gioachino Rossini: La pietra del paragone "Melodramma giocoso in due atti"
Gioachino Rossini: La pietra del paragone "Melodramma giocoso in due atti"