31^st Festival Season - 2009

A Night in Venice

Music by: Johann Strauss II

Lyrics by: Friedrich Zell & Richard Genée

It is Carnival time again in Venice as macaroni cook Pappacoda extols his virtues as one of the city's favored institutions. Naval officer Enrico slips him a note with a message for Senator Delacqua's wife Barbara that he will be awaiting her for a rendezvous later that evening. Anticipating the annual arrival in town of the philandering Duke of Urbino, Senator Delacqua intends to send Barbara by gondola to an out-of-town aunt in Murano for “safekeeping.” Barbara, eager for a romantic evening with Enrico, engages the fisher-girl Annina to disguise herself and take her place in the gondola. Annina’s sweetheart Caramello is the Duke’s barber, always on the lookout for romantic opportunities for his master. Unbeknownst to Annina, he disguises himself, takes the place of the gondolier, and delivers who he thinks is Barbara not to her aunt, but to the Duke, who recalls her receptive response to his advances the previous year.

Imagine Caramello’s surprise when, upon arrival at the palace, he and Annina unmask and he realizes that he has just delivered his sweetheart into the hands of the womanizing Duke. Annina is happy to take advantage of the moment and exploit the time with the Duke that fate has given her. Meanwhile, Delacqua is enjoying the festivities with a masked, phony wife, Ciboletta, the girlfriend of Pappacoda. When Delacqua leaves to join Barbara in Murano, the Duke wastes no time and courts both Annina and Ciboletta, with their jealous boyfriends looking on.

As the reveling shifts to Saint Mark’s Square, Ciboletta reports to Pappacoda that she has secured for him an appointment as the Duke’s personal cook – now they can marry. Failing to find Barbara in Murano, Delacqua returns, confronts Barbara and Enrico, and is only placated when Enrico concocts some story about rescuing the senator’s wife from an impostor gondolier. The Duke, less interested in Barbara when he takes note of Enrico’s size, rewards Caramello for keeping him out of trouble by promoting him to his personal steward. Caramello and Annina can now marry…and the Carnival celebration continues through the night.