(1761-1820)
Italian librettist Angelo Anelli received a classical academic education at the University of Padua, where he studied literature and law. Between 1808 and 1816, he served as a professor of forensic rhetoric in Milan, and later as one of judicial procedure in Pavia. Between 1793 and 1817, he was the theatre poet for Milan's La Scala. During this time, he wrote more than 40 librettos. His libretto Griselda was set to music by Niccolò Piccini, while Stefano Pavesi employed his Ser Marcantonio, which was also used by Giovanni Ruffini in creating the libretto for Donizetti's Don Pasquale. However, he also wrote for other composers, such as Domenico Cimarosa, Jan Ladislav Dussek and Johann Simon Mayr. In his libretto L'italiana in Algeri, for which both Luigi Mosca and Rossini wrote music, one can find references to his interest in freemasonry, and the work also shows how Anelli readily used stories from real life in his librettos. He frequently issued his librettos under one of his pseudonyms: Lauro Fifferi, Marco Landi, P. Latanzio, Nicolo Liprandi, Tomasso Menucci, Giovanni Scannamusa and Gasparo Scopabirba.