Regina Diaz
Regina Diaz is a two-act opera by Umberto Giordano, with a libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci. It is in Italian and premiered on March 5, 1894 at the Teatro Mercadante in Naples. The story comes from the same source used for Donizetti’s Maria di Rohan but moves the setting from 17th‑century Paris to early 18th‑century Naples under Spanish rule.
The premiere was a failure and the opera was withdrawn after the second performance. Critics panned it, and there was dispute over who was at fault: the libretto or the production itself. It was Giordano’s second full‑length work, and although it failed, some of its music later fed into his more successful opera, Andrea Chénier, which premiered in 1896.
Plot (Naples, around 1700): Mario Sanseverino, a Neapolitan nobleman, leads a rebellion against Spanish rule and entrusts papers to friar Benedetto, including letters from his lover Regina, the wife of the governor Ferrante Diaz. Sanseverino and Regina meet in a church and reaffirm their love, but the plot is discovered. In Act 2, Sanseverino and Regina plan to flee together at midnight. Ferrante learns Regina betrayed him with Sanseverino and, after a confrontation, Sanseverino is killed in a duel; Regina is sent to a convent.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 18:41 (CET).