This 1826 opera by Gaetano Donizetti from a libretto by Jacopo Ferretti was adapted from his popular 1824 comedic opera L'ajo nell'imbarazzo (The Tutor Embarrassed), which had enjoyed considerable success when presented at the Teatro Valle in Rome on 4 February 1824 and was staged at WFO in 1973.
Wexford’s 2006 staging of Don Gregorio was based on the new edition by Maria Chiara Bertieri. To protect his sons, Enrico and Pippetto, from the temptations of worldly life, Marquis Don Giulio Antiquati keeps them in strict seclusion, overseen by Don Gregorio, their benevolent tutor. The plan has not been a great success. Pippetto has become infatuated with the only woman he has ever seen, Leonarda, the ageing servant (and Gregorio’s sworn foe). And Enrico, by now twenty-five years old, has secretly married his neighbour, Gilda Tallemanni, and has a baby son. Matters have come to a head, and Enrico has made himself sick with worry about how to break the news of his marriage to his father.
