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L'ebreo (The Hebrew) is an 1855 opera by Giuseppe Apolloni to a libretto by Antonio Boni adapted from Edward Bulwer Lytton's novella Leila; or, The Siege of Granada of 1838. It premiered on 25 January 1855 at La Fenice, Venice. [1]
The setting is the siege of Granada in the last years of the reconquest of Spain by Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile. Issachar, the titular Hebrew, is the magician of muslim King Boabdil, whom he betrays hoping to obtain freedom under the Spanish for his people. His daughter, Leila is in love with his enemy, the general Adèl-Muza. Issachar joins the Spanish but the Inquisition sentence him to the stake. He escapes by setting fire to the Spanish camp. Leila is taken to Ferdinand and Isabelle, who seek to convert her. At her baptism of the girl her father appears and stabs her, as she dies Adèl-Muza then reveals himself. Both the magician and the Moorish general are sentenced to the stake.
Year 1492 (MCDXCII) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar.
The Catholic Monarchs were Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, whose marriage (1475) and joint rule marked the de facto unification of Spain. They were both from the House of Trastámara and were second cousins, being both descended from John I of Castile; to remove the obstacle that this consanguinity would otherwise have posed to their marriage under canon law, they were given a papal dispensation by Sixtus IV. They married on October 19, 1469, in the city of Valladolid; Isabella was 18 years old and Ferdinand a year younger. It is generally accepted by most scholars that the unification of Spain can essentially be traced back to the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella. Their reign was called by W.H. Prescott "the most glorious epoch in the annals of Spain".
Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba was a Spanish general and statesman who led successful military campaigns during the Conquest of Granada and the Italian Wars. His military victories and widespread popularity earned him the nickname "El Gran Capitán". He also negotiated the final surrender of Granada and later served as Viceroy of Naples. Fernández de Córdoba was a masterful military strategist and tactician.
Abu Abdallah Muhammad XII (c. 1460–1533), known in Europe as Boabdil, was the 22nd and last Nasrid ruler of the Emirate of Granada in Iberia.
Abu'l-Hasan Ali ibn Sa'd, known as Muley Hacén in Spanish, was the twenty-first Nasrid ruler of the Emirate of Granada in Spain, from 1464 to 1482 and again from 1483 to 1485.
The First Italian War, sometimes referred to as the Italian War of 1494 or Charles VIII's Italian War, was the opening phase of the Italian Wars. The war pitted Charles VIII of France, who had initial Milanese aid, against the Holy Roman Empire, Spain and an alliance of Italian powers led by Pope Alexander VI, known as the League of Venice.
The Treaty of Granada, also known as the Surrender of Granada or simply the Capitulations, was signed and ratified on November 25, 1491, between Boabdil, the sultan of Granada, and Ferdinand and Isabella, the King and Queen of Castile, León, Aragon and Sicily. It ended the Granada War, which had started in 1482 and culminated in the siege and battle of Granada, which began in spring 1491.
Ferdinand II was King of Aragon from 1479 until his death in 1516. As the husband of Queen Isabella I of Castile, he was also King of Castile from 1475 to 1504. He reigned jointly with Isabella over a dynastically unified Spain; together they are known as the Catholic Monarchs. Ferdinand is considered the de facto first king of Spain, and was described as such during his reign, even though, legally, Castile and Aragon remained two separate kingdoms until they were formally united by the Nueva Planta decrees issued between 1707 and 1716.
The Emirate of Granada, also known as the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada, was an Islamic realm in the southern Iberian Peninsula during the Late Middle Ages, ruled by the Nasrid dynasty. It was the last independent Muslim state in Western Europe.
The Granada War was a series of military campaigns between 1482 and 1492 during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, against the Nasrid dynasty's Emirate of Granada. It ended with the defeat of Granada and its annexation by Castile, ending the last remnant of Islamic rule on the Iberian peninsula and ending the 781 year long Christian Reconquista in Iberia, the longest war in history.
La rendición de Granada is a work by the Spanish painter Francisco Pradilla Ortiz completed in 1882, which is located in the Conference Room or Salón de los Pasos Perdidos of the Spanish Senate Palace.
Maria Spezia-Aldighieri (1828–1907) was an Italian operatic soprano who had an active international career from 1849 up into the 1870s. She excelled in the coloratura soprano repertoire and was particularly admired for her portrayals in the operas of Giuseppe Verdi. Her performance of Violetta in Verdi's La traviata at the Teatro San Benedetto in Venice in 1854 is credited with popularizing the opera after it had initially flopped at its premiere in 1853. She was married to baritone Gottardo Aldighieri and is the great grandmother of singer George Aaron.
Aisha al-Hurra, generally known under her Spanish name Aixa, was a Princess of the Nasrid dynasty. She was the spouse of Muhammed XI and of Abu l-Hasan Ali, and the mother of Muhammad XII. She was politically active and exerted influence upon the policy of state during the last years of the Emirate of Granada. Aixa is one of the best known women of the history of the Emirate of Granada.
Isabel de Solís was the slave concubine and later the consort of Abu l-Hasan Ali, Sultan of Granada. Originally a Christian from Castile, she converted to Islam under the name of Zoraya. She exerted a strong influence over her spouse.
Leila; or, The Siege of Granada is a historical romance novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton published in 1838.
Carlo Negrini was an Italian spinto tenor and creator of Gabriele Adorno in Verdi’s opera Simon Boccanegra.
Giovanni Filippo Apolloni was an Italian poet and librettist. Born in Arezzo, he has sometimes been referred to as "Giovanni Apollonio Apolloni", but the second given name is spurious. He served as the court poet to Ferdinand Charles, Archduke of Austria at Innsbruck form 1653 until 1659. On his return to Italy he entered the service of Cardinal Volumnio Bandinelli. After Bandinelli's death in 1667 Appolloni was in the service of the Chigi family in Rome and Siena for the rest of his life. He wrote the librettos for a number of operas, the most well-known of which were Antonio Cesti's L'Argia and La Dori, as well as several oratorios and the texts for cantatas by both Cesti and Alessandro Stradella.
The Sigh of the Moor is an oil-on-canvas painting of Muhammad XII, (Boabdil), last Nasrid Emir of Granada. It was painted in the late 19th century by the Spanish artist Francisco Pradilla Ortiz. The painting depicts Boabdil, having ceded Granada to the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella, turning to take a last look at the city he has lost, before going into exile.
Álvaro de Zúñiga y Pérez de Guzmán was a Spanish nobleman, member of the first-born branch of the House of Zúñiga, Grandee of Spain, 2nd Duke of Béjar, 2nd Duke of Plasencia, 3rd Count of Bañares, 1st Marquis of Gibraleón, first knight of the realm, knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, justicia mayor and alguacil mayor of Castile. In 1488 he succeeded his grandfather Álvaro de Zúñiga y Guzmán, 1st Duke of Béjar and Plasencia in the mayorazgo (majorat).