Pygmalion is a lyric opera in one-act by famed bel canto composer, Gaetano Donizetti. Donizetti is best known for soaring musical dramas including Lucia di Lammermoor and Anna Bolena, and whimsical, comedic masterpieces like L'Elisir d'amore and Don Pasquale. During his storied career, Donizetti composed nearly 70 operas, but at age 19 at the Bologna Academy, he composed his very first one-act comedy: Il Pigmalione or Pygmalion. It is believed to have been composed in just six days, as the composer developed his "gift for spontaneous composition". Despite that remarkable feat, it was not debuted until 1960, more than a hundred years after Donizetti's death. 

Pygmalion is based on the Classical tale of the king and sculptor, Pygmalion (tenor), originally taken from the tenth book of the Metamorphoses by Ovid. As the sculptor bemoans the possibility that he may never find the ideal of feminine beauty in real life, he creates a sculpture himself. Pygmalion falls in love with his own creation, naming her Galathea (soprano), and prays to the goddess, Venus, to bring her to life.