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Giovanni Schmidt | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1775 Livorno, Tuscany, Italy |
| Died | After 1839 (aged 63–64) Naples, Campania, Italy |
| Occupation | Librettist |
| Years active | 1800–1839 |
| Employer | Teatro di San Carlo |
| Style | Opera |
Giovanni Schmidt (c. 1775, in Livorno – after 1839, in Naples) was an Italian librettist.
Schmidt moved to Naples while he was young, where he remained the rest of his life. Between 1800 and 1839, he wrote libretti for 45 operas, especially for the Teatro di San Carlo, for which he was the official poet. He and Andrea Leone Tottola were the two librettists who dominated theatrical life in Naples in the first quarter of the 19th century. His lyrics were mostly banal and verbose, but were set by the most important composers of the era, such as Giacomo Tritto, Gaetano Andreozzi, Luigi Mosca, Pietro Generali, Saverio Mercadante and Gioachino Rossini. For Rossini alone he wrote texts for Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra, Eduardo e Cristina, Armida and Adelaide di Borgogna, which are considered his best works. Because of this, he was depicted as a character in a scene from the 1991 film Rossini! Rossini!, directed by Mario Monicelli.
