Il pesceballo (The Fish-Ball) is a 19th-century Americanpasticcioopera in one act featuring the music ofBellini,Donizetti,Mozart, andRossini, with a spoof Italianlibretto byFrancis James Child which makes use of some ofgrand opera's most popular melodies. The recitatives and chorus parts were written byJohn Knowles Paine, andJames Russell Lowell translated the libretto into English.^[1]

Child was aHarvard English professor and opera lover, and the text was originally inspired by an incident which occurred to a colleague of his. One eveningGeorge Martin Lane was trying to make his way to Cambridge, MA, from Boston. He discovered that he had only 25 cents, which was not enough for both supper and the fare needed to get to Cambridge. As he was very tired and hungry, he stopped at a local diner and asked for half of a serving of macaroni. After he had recounted the story to his friends, he wrote a comic ballad, calledThe Lone Fish-Ball. A fishball was a friedNew England concoction made of potatoes andfish stock, and usually eaten for breakfast. The ballad became very popular withHarvard students, and inspired Child's opera; it also became the source for the popularTin Pan Alley song, "One Meat Ball".^[1]

The opera begins with a chorus sung to the tune of "La dolce aurora" fromRossini'sMosè in Egitto.The song of the Stranger in the second scene is adapted to the "Serenade" inThe Barber of Seville; the song of the Padrona in the fourth scene is set to the "Non piu mesta" ofLa Cenerentola; the duet in the fifth scene to "La dove prende Amor recetto" ofThe Magic Flute; the "Cavatina" in the sixth scene to the "Di pescator" ofLucrezia Borgia; the aria of the seventh scene, to the "Madamina" ofDon Giovanni; the chorus of scene eight to the "Guerra, Guerra" ofNorma; the duet of scene nine to the "O sole piu ratto" ofLucia di Lammermoor; the "Cavatina" of scene ten to the "Meco all'altar" ofNorma; the chorus of the same scene to the "Bando, Bando" ofLucrezia Borgia, and the trio which follows, to the "Guai se tu sfoggi" of the same opera; the piece concludes with thearia to"Vieni!", fromDonizetti'sLa favorite.^[2]

It was first performed in abenefit concert for theSanitary Commission, an organization that treated ill and wounded soldiers of theUnion army. In 1864, it was revived for several more benefit performances, this time to aid Unionists inEast Tennessee. All the productions were amateur productions, for the humor of the opera is aimed at literati and intellectuals.

The primary sources for the reconstruction ofIl pesceballo are the published libretto by Child, and the recitatives and chorus parts penned by Paine, which were discovered byMary Ellen Brown. Brown employedEric Knechtges to organize and transcribe this work for a performance atIndiana University.

• Operas
• English-language operas
• Italian-language operas
• Operas by multiple composers
• One-act operas
• 19th-century operas
• 1864 operas

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