Un Giorno Di Regno

Un Giorno Di Regno

Un giorno di regno, ossia il finto Stanislao (A One-Day Reign, or The Pretend Stanislaus, but often translated into English as King for a Day) is an operatic melodramma giocoso in two acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on the play Le faux Stanislas by Alexandre Vincent Pineu-Duval. Written between 1838 and 1840, Un giorno di regno was Verdi's first attempt at comic opera.

The first performance was at Teatro alla Scala, Milan on 5 September 1840. It was a failure. Verdi was seated in the orchestra pit during the first performance, and thus heard the audience reaction directly. Along with the critics, Verdi acknowledged that the failure was partly due to his own personal circumstances, since his two children and then his wife Margherita Barezzi died during its composition. A contributing factor was that the only singers La Scala's impresario had available were those assembled for an opera seria, Otto Nicolai's Il templario, and they had no experience with opera buffa. La Scala cancelled the remaining scheduled performances, and did not revive the work until 2001.

Other productions during Verdi's lifetime in Italy were given in Venice in 1845, in Rome in 1846, and Naples in 1859. Verdi would not attempt another operatic comedy until the end of his career with Falstaff.