Felice Romani

Felice Romani was the most sought-after Italian librettist of his day, and wrote the libretto of Verdi's Un giorno di regno, first set by Adalbert Gyrowetz. Trained in law, he turned to letters and, after two librettos for Simon Mayr in 1813, was engaged by La Scala. He wrote Bellini's Il pirata, La sonnambula and Norma, Donizetti's Anna Bolena and L'elisir d'amore and Rossini's Il turco in Italia, taking most of his subjects from French literature, though he refused to write for Paris. From 1834 he edited the Gazzetta ufficiale piemontese in Turin. His wife, Emilia Branca, wrote his biography.