LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Lucrezia Borgia
built 642 days ago
Lucrezia Borgia (1833) is an opera in bel canto style by Gaetano Donizetti comprising a prologue and two acts. The libretto, by Felice Romani, stems from Victor Hugo´s tragedy Lucrèce Borgia, which had been premiered in Paris that same year (1833). This was the great French Romantic writer´s first contribution to Italian opera. Other plays of his later gave rise to such noteworthy operas as Verdi´s Ernani (1844) and Rigoletto (1851).
Source:
Lucrezia Borgia was the daughter of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, later to become Pope Alexander VI, and his mistress Vannozza Cattanei, who was ... the mother of Lucrezia's two older brothers, Cesare and Giovanni. The job of raising Lucrezia, however, was given to Rodrigo's cousin, the widow Adriana daMila. While living in a palace in Rome, Lucrezia was educated at the Convent of St. Sixtus on Via Appia. Described as being slender, she was of medium height, with light-blue/green eyes and golden hair, which she later bleached to maintain its goldenness. A painting by Pinturicchio, "Disputation of Saint Catherine, " is said to be modeled after her, depicting a slender young woman with wavy, blonde hair cascading down her back.
Source:
During the process of obtaining an annulment on the grounds that Sforza was impotent, Lucrezia Borgia had an affair with someone, possibly Alexander's messenger, Perotto, and perhaps even her own brother, Cesare. It is known that Lucretia Borgia was pregnant at the time the annulment was granted, and a child named Giovanni Borgia , aka "Roman Infante," was born in secret before her second marriage to Alfonso of Aragon. Whoever the father of the child was, during her pregnancy Lucretia Borgia stayed away from Rome, fearful of reprisals from the citizenry.
Directed by silent film pioneer Abel Gance, "Lucrezia Borgia" (1935, 93 min.) blazes onto the screen with the story of one of history's most ruthlessly ambitious families. With the same high style and exquisite attention to detail that Gance demonstrated so breathtakingly in "Napoleon," "Lucrezia Borgia" has been called an exuberant display of Gance's extensive filmmaking prowess. Also included are two rarely seen shorter silent films directed by Gance: "Au Secours!" (1923, 31 min.) uses experimental editing and photography to illustrate a man's adventures in a haunted house. "La Folie Du Docteur Tube" (1916, 14 min.) is a highly advanced experimental comedy about a mad scientist who discovers a sneezing powder that can alter someone's physique. This film, which uses mirrors to create distorted images, is considered by many to be the first appearance of the avant-garde in French cinema.
Source:
Lucrezia Borgia's father and brother arranged all of her marriages in order to further their own political ambitions. Her first husband was Giovanni Sforza of the powerful Milanese family, whose political influence was important to both Rodrigo and Cesare. But Sforza soon outlived his usefulness, and Rodrigo may have covertly ordered the poor man's execution. Some sources claim that Lucrezia Borgia's brother informed her of her father's impending plans, and that she warned her husband who promptly fled Rome. Historical records cannot validate this version, but whatever went down, Alexander and Cesare forced Sforza's hand and his marriage to Lucretia Borgia was annulled.
Lucrezia Borgia, duchess of Ferrara, daughter of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, afterwards Pope Alexander VI, by his mistress Vanozza dei Cattanei, was born at Rome in 1480. Her early years were spent at her mother's house near her father's splendid palace; but later she was given over to the care of Adriana de Mila, a relation of Cardinal Borgia and mother-in-law of Giulia Farnese, another of his mistresses. Lucrezia was educated according to the usual curriculum of Renaissance ladies of rank, and was taught languages, music, embroidery, painting, etc.; she was famed for her beauty and charm, but the corrupt court of Rome in which she was brought up was not conducive to a good moral education. Her father at first contemplated a Spanish marriage for her, and at the age of eleven she was betrothed to Don Cherubin do Centelles, a Spanish nobleman. But the engagement was broken off almost immediately, and Lucrezia was married by proxy to another Spaniard, Don Gasparo de Procida, son of the count of Aversa. On the death of Pope Innocent VIII (1492), Cardinal Borgia was elected pope as Alexander VI, and, contemplating a yet more ambitious marriage for his daughter, he annulled the union with Procida; in February 1493 Lucrezia was betrothed to Giovanni Sforza, lord of Pesaro, with whose family Alexander was now in close alliance.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Lucrezia Borgia