What is "chatterton"

Thomas Chatterton (1752–1770) was an English poet and forger of pseudo-medieval poetry.

Chatterton may also refer to:

Chatterton is a dramma lirico or opera in three acts (four acts in its original 1876 version) by Ruggero Leoncavallo. The libretto was written by the composer himself and is freely adapted from the life of the young English poet from Bristol, Thomas Chatterton (1752–1770).

Considered by the romantics as the perfect archetype of the accursed poet, Chatterton became famous for his brilliant pastiches of medieval poetry, which he attributed to an imaginary 15th-century monk whom he called Thomas Rowley. At the age of 18, to escape his misery, he committed suicide in London by taking poison.

The plot of the opera is based on Alfred de Vigny's Chatterton (published in 1835)—a successful drama in three acts derived from the second of the trio of short stories contained in his philosophical novel Stello (1832).

Chatterton, composed in 1876, is the debut opera of a young Leoncavallo freshly graduated from the Naples conservatory. However, the composer failed in his attempt to get his work performed because the promoter of the planned production disappeared with Leoncavallo's money shortly before the premiere. Leoncavallo would have to wait until after the financial success of his best known opera, 1892's Pagliacci, to see Chatterton produced.

The opera finally premiered on 10 March 1896, at the Teatro Drammatico Nazionale, Rome, in a revised version of the original four-act opera. The work was not successful even after another revision which was completed in 1905. Today, Chatterton is rarely performed.

Chatterton is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

• Fenimore Chatterton (1860–1958), American businessman
• Georgiana Chatterton (1806–1876), British traveller and author
• John Chatterton, wreck diver
• John Balsir Chatterton, English harpist
• Ruth Chatterton (1892–1961), American actress
• Thomas Chatterton (1752–1770), English poet and forger
• Tom Chatterton (1881–1952), American actor
• William Chatterton (1861–1913), English cricketer

Chatterton is the ninth studio album by French rocker Alain Bashung, issued in 1994 on Barclay Records.