Who is the coward character who plays appears in one of Shakespeare's lesser-regarded works that has been adapted for the opera on several occasions?
Ancient Pistol Ancient Pistol is a swaggering soldier who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare. Though full of grandiose boasts about his prowess, he is essentially a coward. The character is introduced in "Henry IV, Part 2" and reappears in "The Merry Wives of Windsor" and "Henry V".
Un re in ascolto Un re in ascolto ("A King Listens") is an opera by Luciano Berio, who also wrote the Italian libretto. It is based on a short story, Under the Jaguar Sun by Italo Calvino, but incorporates excerpts from Friedrich Einsiedel's 1778 libretto (as reworked by Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter between 1790 and 1791) for an opera based on Shakespeare's "The Tempest". This became "Die Geisterinsel" in 1798, set to music written by Friedrich Fleischmann. In addition, W. H. Auden's "The Sea and the Mirror: A Commentary on Shakespeare's The Tempest" was a source.