The “Opera of Choruses” – as Clotilde was called right from the outset for the importance and quantity included in the drama – as it is a semiseria opera - or, to be more exact, a larmoyante - it is smooth-running and lively. It was staged on illustrious stages (Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, Naples’ San Carlo, The Fenice in Venice and L’Opera de Paris) and then slowly declined, overshadowed by the masterpieces of the great Gioachino Rossini, the eternal omnipresent rival of many honest opera composers of that period. Carlo Coccia was born in Naples on 14th April 1782 and died in 1873 in Novara where he had been maestro di cappella since the fourties, obtaining the honor and responsibility of the invitation to write, in representation of his cappella, a Lagrimosa for a great Messa di Requiem desired by Giuseppe Verdi and supported by Arrigo Boito and Giulio Ricordi in honour of Rossini who died in 1868.
