In a publisher's warehouse in Milan last fall, Kalamazoo-born Conductor Thomas Schippers discovered an opera score dedicated to Queen Margherita * of Italy and tied up in purple string. In Spoleto last week, at the opening of Gian Carlo Menotti's Festival of Two Worlds, he unwrapped his find before a capacity audience. Italian critics promptly hailed the long-forgotten work as one of the finest creations of Composer Gaetano Donizetti.
Work on Donizetti's last opera, Il Duca d'Alba, was interrupted by the composer's insanity, and the score remained unfinished at his death in 1848....