A basso porto (At the Lower Harbour) is an opera in three acts by the Italian composer
Niccola Spinelli. The opera sets an Italian-language
libretto by Eugene Checchi, based on
Goffredo Cognetti's 1889 play O voto. It premiered to critical success at the
Cologne Opera on April 18, 1894, sung in a German translation by
Ludwig Hartmann and Otto Hess. This watercolour illustration depicts the set design by
Riccardo Salvadori for act 1 of the opera's premiere. A basso porto is set in the slums of
Naples, and Spinelli included
mandolins and
guitars in his orchestral score.Set design credit:
Riccardo Salvadori