About the work
Il Flaminio is a three-act commedia per musica by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, set to a libretto by Gennaro Antonio Federico. It premiered in autumn 1735 as the second opera production of the season at the Teatro Nuovo sopra Toledo in Naples, to great applause from the audience.
Plot
In a village near Naples, the accountant Giulio is courted by several women and turns out to be Flaminio, a former suitor believed dead, who has returned under a false name. In the end three couples come together – Flaminio with Giustina, Ferdinando with Agata, and Vastiano with Checca – while the old Polidoro is left alone.
Cultural significance
Pergolesi composed the work as the illness that would kill him a few months later was already worsening. Il Flaminio remained in the repertoire until 1750; in 2019 Ricordi published a critical edition by Ivano Bettin based on a copy held at Montecassino Abbey and Pergolesi's autograph score of the third act.