Abstract
The opera is based on the internationally acclaimed 1958 novel Il Gattopardo by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (1896-1957), a Sicilian aristocrat who chronicled the changes in Sicily during the revolutionary times of the Italian Risorgimento. Lampedusa’s protagonist is Don Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina, and known as "The Leopard" for his commanding personality. A member of an impoverished aristocracy, soon to be obsolete, the Prince reluctantly adjusts to the modern world to guarantee his family’s future – and in doing so, sacrifices the happiness of one of them.