Composer Amilcare Ponchielli Librettist Arrigo Boito Based On the play "Angelo, Tyran de Padoue" by Victor Hugo Company San Francisco Opera Association Touring Location Los Angeles, CA Venue Shrine Auditorium Season 1948 Language Italian Creative/Crew Conductor Dick Marzollo Stage Director(s) Armando Agnini Chorus Director Kurt Herbert Adler Choreography by Willam Christensen Cast La Gioconda, a ballad singer Astrid Varnay La Cieca, her blind mother Claramae Turner Alvise Badoero, a leader of the Inquisition Nicola Moscona Laura, his wife Ebe Stignani Enzo Grimaldo, a Genoese noble Kurt Baum Barnaba, a spy of the Inquisition Francesco Valentino Zuane, a boatman Patrick McVey Cantor Norman Benson Isepo, a public letter-writer Paul Walti Pilot Robin Nelson Monk Desire Ligeti Voice Evaristo Alibertini James Attarian Solo Dancer(s) Sallie Whalen Show Dates Tue, Oct 26 1948, 8pm Time and Place Seventeenth century; Venice Scenes Act I -- Courtyard of Ducal Palace Act II -- Lagoon near City -- Night Act III, Scene 1 -- Room in Palace of Alvise Scene 2 -- Great Hall in the Ca d'Oro Act IV -- A Ruined Palace on an Island near Venice Notes Corps de Ballet