La cena delle beffe (The Jesters' Supper) is an opera in four acts composed by Umberto Giordano to an Italian libretto by Sem Benelli adapted from his 1909 play of the same name. The opera premiered on 20 December 1924 at La Scala. Milan. The story, set in Florence at the time of Lorenzo de' Medici, recounts the rivalry between Giannetto Malespini and Neri Chiaramantesi for the affections of the beautiful Ginevra and Giannetto's thirst for revenge over a cruel joke played on him by Neri and his brother Gabriello. Giannetto's revenge "joke" ultimately leads Neri to murder both Ginevra and (by mistake) his own brother. The opera ends with Neri's descent into madness.

The libretto for Giordano's opera was adapted by the Italian playwright and poet, Sem Benelli, from his verse play, La cena delle beffe. Described as a poema drammatico (dramatic poem), it premiered in 1909 at the Teatro Argentina in Rome with original music composed by 14-year-old Manoah Leide-Tedesco.^{[citation needed]} Like several other works by Benelli it is written in neo-romantic florid verse, with an historical setting and a melodramatic, violent plot. Benelli's play was an immediate and extraordinary success in Italy. At one time it was being performed simultaneously by four different Italian touring companies, and remains in the repertoire today.^[1] A version of the play adapted by Jean Richepin and titled La beffa (The Joke), was performed in Paris in 1910 with Sarah Bernhardt playing the role of Giannetto. It ran for 21 performances, but her plan to present the play in New York later that year had to be abandoned when the wrong sets were shipped from Paris.^[2] Considerably more successful was the 1919 English adaptation by Edward Sheldon, The Jest, starring John Barrymore as Giannetto Malespini and Lionel Barrymore as Neri Chiaramantesi, which ran for 256 performances at the Plymouth Theatre in New York City.^[3]

Giordano approached Benelli in 1917 to propose setting the play as an opera. Benelli initially refused as the composer Tommaso Montefiore had obtained the right to compose a work based on the play in 1910, although by 1917, he had still not begun work on it. After lengthy negotiations via Giordano's publisher, Casa Sonzogno, Giordano finally obtained the rights to compose the opera on 15 September 1923.^[4] Benelli himself adapted his play for the libretto.

La cena delle beffe premiered in Milan on 20 December 1924 at La Scala in a performance directed by Giovacchino Forzano and conducted by Arturo Toscanini, with Carmen Melis as Ginevra and Hipólito Lázaro as Giannetto. The sets and costumes were designed by Galileo Chini, who had also designed the premiere production of Benelli's original play in 1909.

The opening night was a triumphal success with the conductor and cast taking 24 curtain calls.^[5] and this success at La Scala led to performances throughout Italy and abroad. The following year La cena delle beffe had its first performances at La Fenice and the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Its US premiere was at the Metropolitan Opera on 2 January 1926 with a stellar cast that included Frances Alda as Ginevra, Beniamino Gigli as Giannetto, and Titta Ruffo as Neri.^[6]

By 1930, the opera had been seen in more than 40 cities around the world. However, it only ran for 12 performances over two seasons at the Met, and performances after 1930 have become sporadic although the opera has never completely dropped out of the repertoire.^[5] It had major revivals in 1987 at Wexford Festival Opera and in 1999 at Zurich Opera and the Teatro Comunale di Bologna in a production directed by Liliana Cavani. It also received a concert performance by Teatro Grattacielo at Alice Tully Hall in 2004.^[7] In 2016, it received a new production at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan.^[8] Both the Zurich and the Milan production fell into the tenure of the Austrian as the respective theatre's general director.

The 1942 film The Jester's Supper is an adaptation of Benelli's original play, rather than the opera.

Place: Florence

Time: Lorenzo de' Medici's time

There are no complete studio recordings of the work. Remastered recordings of live performances released on CD include:.^[12]

• Oliviero De Fabritiis (conductor), Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano della RAI, with Antonio Annaloro as Giannetto, Gigliola Frazzoni as Ginevra, and Anselmo Colzani as Neri. Live recording of a radio performance in Milan, 1956. Label: Myto CD^[13]
• Nino Bonavolontà (conductor), RAI Orchestra & Chorus, Milan, with Giangiacomo Guelfi, Amedeo Zambon, Anna Maria Rosati, Plino Clabassi, and Alfredo Mariotti. Live performance, December 5, 1972, Opera d'Oro, OPD 1478
• Gian Paolo Sanzogno (conductor), Orchestra Sinfonica di Piacenza, with Fabio Armiliato as Giannetto, Rita Lantieri as Ginevra, and Marco Chingari as Neri. Live recording of a stage performance in Piacenza, 1988. Label: Bongiovanni CD^[13]