A Florentine Tragedy
A Florentine Tragedy is a fragment of a never-completed play by Oscar Wilde. The subject concerns Simone, a wealthy 16th-century Florentine merchant who finds his wife Bianca in the arms of a local prince, Guido Bardi. After feigning hospitality, Simone challenges the interloper to a duel, disarms him, and strangles him. This awakens the affection of his wife; and the two are reconciled.
In 1914 the young Italian composer Carlo Ravasegna (Turin 1891-Rome 1964) wrote a short opera "Una Tragedia Fiorentina" to a translation/libretto by Ettore Moschino. The libretto was published with Wilde's name by the Tipografia Subalpina, Turin, 1914.
Sergei Prokofiev wrote his opera Maddalena to his own libretto based on a play by Magda Gustavovna Lieven-Orlov written under the pen name Baron Lieven. That play was in turn based on Oscar Wilde's play. The opera had its premiere in a BBC studio recording in London in 1979; and its first live staging was in Austria in 1981.
In 1989, C. René Hirschfeld wrote an chamber opera named "Bianca" based on the Florentine Tragedy. He used the German translation by Max Meyerfeld. Filling in for the absent first scene, a love scene between Bianca and the prince, Hirschfeld used love poetry from Oscar Wilde himself. The opera was first performed at the Salzburg Festival in 1991.
- "Oscar Wilde: An Inventory of His Collection at the Harry Ransom Center". norman.hrc.utexas.edu. Alexander, George, Sir, 1858-1918., Harris, Frank, 1855-1931., Holland, Vyvyan Beresford, 1886-1967., Leverson, Ada., Ransome, Arthur, 1884-1967., Ross, Robert Baldwin, 1869-1918. Retrieved 2018-08-20.
- The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde. Collins. pp. 689 (footnote).; Luce/Methuen premiere of the Moore edition, 1908
- Digitized copy of the original manuscript for A Florentine Tragedy, Harry Ransom Center
- The Manuscripts of Oscar Wilde
- Music based on the works of Oscar Wilde
- A Florentine Tragedy public domain audiobook at LibriVox
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