Tomaso Benvenuti

Tomaso Benvenuti (also spelled Tommasso and Tommaso; 4 February 1838 – 26 February 1906) was a nineteenth-century Italian composer of opera. He was born in Cavarzere in the Veneto (at the time part of the Austrian Empire) and died in Rome at the age of 68. Works Benvenuti is known to have written the following seven operas: *Valenzia Candiano, an azione lirica, 1856. The librettist is unknown, as is the place, if there was one, of the first performance. A libretto published in Mantua in 1856, however, does include other details of what may have been the first production. From the character list it appears the opera was adapted from Valenzia Candiano, o, La figlia dell’ammiraglio, an historical novel published in 1843 by the Milanese writer Giuseppe Rovani. *Adriana, or Adriana Lecouvreur, a dramma lirico in 4 acts, 1857. The libretto by was adapted from the play Adrienne Lecouvreur by Eugène Scribe and Ernest-Wilfrid Legouvé, which would later form the basis for Francesco Cilea’s opera Adriana Lecouvreur. The opera’s first performance was on 26 November 1857 at the Teatro della Canobbiana, Milan. *Guglielmo Shakspeare (i.e. William Shakespeare), a melodramma in 5 acts, 1861. The op