About the work
Der Florentinerhut (Italian original title Il cappello di paglia di Firenze, "The Italian Straw Hat") is a comic opera (opera buffa) in four acts by Nino Rota — today known above all as a film composer for Fellini and "The Godfather". Rota wrote the libretto together with his mother Ernesta Rinaldi, after the farce "Un chapeau de paille d'Italie" by Eugène Labiche. Composed in the 1940s, the opera was premiered on 21 April 1955 at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo.
Plot
On the morning of his wedding, the groom Fadinard is riding through Paris when his horse eats the straw hat of a young lady. The lady, Anaïde, is out with a jealous officer and cannot return home without her hat without arousing her husband's suspicion. Fadinard is forced to procure an identical Florentine straw hat — and this, of all times, while his entire wedding party unwittingly follows him all over Paris. A breathless chase through four acts begins, full of mix-ups, misunderstandings and absurd coincidences, in which Fadinard desperately tries to arrive at his own wedding on time, keep his father-in-law in good humour and cover up the mishap. In the end everything resolves happily.
Cultural significance
Der Florentinerhut is Nino Rota's best-known and most-performed opera and a shining example of the vitality of opera buffa in the 20th century. With virtuoso ensembles, bel canto coloratura and knowing allusions to Rossini, Donizetti, Mozart and even Wagner, Rota created a sparkling homage to the Italian comic tradition. Giorgio Strehler's production at the Piccola Scala in Milan became especially famous. The rousing overture is frequently performed as a stand-alone concert piece.