Francesco Albergati Capacelli

Francesco Albergati Capacelli (19 April 1728 – 16 March 1804) was an Italian writer and playwright.

Albergati was born in Bologna, where he was a marquess and senator and an important administrator. He led a stormy personal life and was married three times. He was accused of murdering his second wife, Caterina Boccadabati, in a fit of jealousy, and he had to flee from Zola Predosa. He returned after several years during which lived in different cities. His third wife wasted most of his remaining fortune.

But his passion for theatre encouraged him to write a series a number of works. He also translated a number of other important French works to Italian. He was also an avid writer who corresponded with a number of personalities including Carlo Goldoni, G. Compagnoni, Francesco Bertazzoli and Francesco Zacchiroli. He died in Zola Predosa,

Works

 * Le convulsioni (comedy in prose in one act)
 * Nuovo Teatro Comico (1774-1978), 5- volume series including
 * Le convulsioni
 * Il ciarlatano maldicente
 * Pregiudizi del falso onore
 * Novelle morali ad uso dei fanciulli (1779)
 * Il Saggio Amico, Commedia (1769)
 * Pasquale ossia Il postiglione burlato (a joint dramatic work with F. Malaspina, turned into a one-act drama by Filippo Pallavicino)

Translations from French

 * Ines de Castro, drama from Antoine Houdar de la Motte
 * Il conte di Commingio, drama from François-Thomas-Marie de Baculard d'Arnaud, translated in verse, Vérone, Stamperia Moroni, 1767
 * Phèdre from Jean Racine

Letters

 * Lettere piacevoli, se piaceranno (1792) to G. Compagnoni
 * Lettere varie (1793) to Francesco Bertazzoli.
 * Raccolta delle Lettere capricciose di Francesco Albergati Capacelli e di Francesco Zacchiroli dai medesimi capricciosamente stampate, Venice, 1786

Notes and references

 * Enrico Mattioda, Il dilettante per mestiere: Francesco Albergati Capacelli commediografo, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1993, (thesis).
 * Marina Vecchi Calore, Alcuni aspetti della personalità di Francesco Albergati Capacelli, in "Il teatro italiano in Europa", Firenze, Olschki, 1985.
 * John A. Rice, "Sense, Sensibility, and Opera Seria: An Epistolary Debate"
 * Albergati Capacelli, Francesco, Trecanni.it -- Encyclopedia online, Enciclopedia Italiana

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