About the work
I due timidi is a one-act radio opera (commedia lirica) by Nino Rota to a libretto by Suso Cecchi d'Amico. Composed in 1949–50, it was first broadcast by RAI on 15 November 1950; its stage premiere followed only on 17 March 1952, at the Scala Theatre of the London Opera Club in London.
Plot
Two shy young people are in love but cannot bring themselves to admit their feelings. Through a misunderstanding, each marries someone else, and the two unknowingly end up living as neighbours in the same building.
Cultural significance
Rota, later famous chiefly as a film composer for Fellini and Coppola, already shows here his gift for wry, situation-driven characters. That the stage premiere came two years after the broadcast, and abroad, shows how hard Rota's chamber operas found their footing next to the more successful Il cappello di paglia di Firenze.