The principal characters are Ottavio, a rich Italian (Bass); Beatrice, his wife (Mezzo-Soprano); Rosaura, his daughter (Soprano); Florindo, betrothed to Rosaura (Tenor); Pantalone, a Venetian merchant (Buffo-Baritone); his friends, Lelio (Baritone), and Leandro (Tenor); Colombina, Rosaura's maid (Soprano); Eleanora, wife to Lelio (Soprano); Arlecchino; servant to Pantalone (Buffo-Bass). There are servants, gondoliers, and men and women of the populace. The action is laid in Venice in the middle of the eighteenth century. There are three acts:
Act I, in the Friendship Club, and later in Ottavio's home; Act II, in Lelio's home; Act III, a street in Venice near the Grand Canal, and later in the club.
In the music the club's motto, "Bandie xe le Done" (No Women Admitted) is repeated often enough to pass for a motif. The most melodious vocal passage is the duet for Rosaura and Florindo in Act II, "Il cor nel contento" (My heart, how it leaps in rejoicing). In the first scene of Act III a beautiful effect is produced by the composer's use of the Venetian barcarolle, "La Biondina in Gondoletta," which often, in the earlier days of Rossini's Opera, "Il Barbiere di Siviglia," was introduced by prima donnas in the lesson scene.
In the Metropolitan production Farrar was Rosaura, Jadlowker Florindo, and Scotti Lelio. Toscanini conducted. The rôles of Colombina and Arlecchino (Harlequin) are survivals of old Italian comedy, which Goldoni still retained in some of his plays.
"Il Segreto di Susanna" (The Secret of Suzanne), the scene a drawing-room in Piedmont, time 1840, is in one act. Countess Suzanne (Soprano) smokes cigarettes. The aroma left by the smoke leads Count Gil (Baritone) to suspect his wife of entertaining a lover. He discovers her secret—and all is well. The third character, a servant, Sante, is an acting part.—A musical trifle, at the Hofoper, Munich, November 4, 1909; Metropolitan Opera House, New York, by the Chicago Opera Company, March 14, 1911, with Carolina White and Sammarco; Constanzi Theatre, Rome, November 27, 1911. The "book" is by Enrico Golisciani, from the French.
"L'Amore Medico," Metropolitan Opera House, March 25, 1914, is another typical bit of Wolf-Ferrari musical bric-a-brac—slight, charming, and quite unable to hold its own in the hurly-burly of modern verismo. A girl is lovesick. Her father, who does not want her ever to leave him, thinks her ailment physical, and vainly summons four noted physicians. Then the clever maid brings in the girl's lover disguised as a doctor. He diagnoses the case as love-hallucination, and suggests as a remedy a mock marriage, with himself as bridegroom. The father consents, and an actual marriage takes place.
The scene of "L'Amore Medico" (Doctor Cupid), words by Golisciani after Molière's "L'Amour Médecin," is a villa near Paris, about 1665 (Louis XIV). The characters are Arnolfo, a rich, elderly landowner (Bass); Lucinda, his daughter (Soprano); Clitandro, a young cavalier, (Tenor); Drs. Tomes (Bass); Desfonandres (Bass); Macroton (Baritone); Bahis (Tenor); Lisetta, Lucinda's maid (Soprano); Notary (Bass). There also are servants, peasants and peasant girls, musicians, dancing girls, etc. The work is in two acts, the scene of the first the villa garden; of the second a handsome interior of the villa. The original production, in German, was at the Dresden Royal Opera House, December 4, 1913.