Belfagor

Belfagor is an Italian-language opera by the composer Ottorino Respighi to a libretto by Claudio Guastalla (1880–1948) based on the comedy Belfagor of Ercole Luigi Morselli (1882–1921), itself loosely based on the novella Belfagor arcidiavolo by Niccolò Machiavelli. It was premiered in 1923 at La Scala in Milan, under the baton of Antonio Guarnieri, since Toscanini was unavailable. The cast featured Irish soprano Margaret Burke Sheridan as Candida, tenor Francesco Merli as her lover Baldo, and baritone Mariano Stabile as the titular Belfagor, an arcidiavolo (Archdemon) who tries to marry a human maiden while in disguise as a nobleman, using gifts of money to her father.