In the winter of 1832 the De Begnis company played on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday during a four-week Edinburgh stay, giving twelve performances, of which seven have been found advertised in the Caledonian Mercury. The evenings so far confirmed, interspersed with performances by the resident theatre company, were as follows: Tue 27 Nov Don Giovanni; Thu 29 Nov Don Giovanni; Sat 1 Dec Barbiere; Tue 4 Dec tbc; Thu 6 Dec Barbiere; Sat 8 Dec Nozze di Figaro; Tue 11 Dec Otello; Thu 13 Dec Otello; Sat 15 Dec Figaro; Tue 18 Dec tbc; Thu 20 Dec Fanatico per la musica; Sat 22 Dec Don Giovanni.
Apart from Giuseppe de Begnis himself, the star of this company was clearly the tenor Domenico Donzelli. He was versatile enough to sing Rossini's Count Almaviva as well as Mozart's Don Giovanni (and the other Count Almaviva). However the great novelty of this visit was Rossini's Otello, the title role of which was definitely one of his specialities. He had already performed it in Naples, Vienna, Paris, Venice, London, Bologna and Milan, and would sing it regularly around Europe over the next decade.
Abbreviated cast details are from the review in the Edinburgh Evening Courant of Saturday 15 December.
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