About the work
Il mondo alla roversa (or Le donne che comandano) is a dramma giocoso in three acts by Baldassare Galuppi to a libretto by Carlo Goldoni. It premiered on 14 November 1750 at the Teatro San Cassiano in Venice.
Plot
The action is set on an island in the southern hemisphere ruled by women: a council of three women, Tulia, Aurora and Cintia, keeps their submissive lovers in check. When new men arrive, love triangles and power struggles over supremacy follow. In the end all agree that a world led by women is an 'upside-down world' that cannot last.
Cultural significance
The idea of a world ruled by women was a popular subject among eighteenth-century 'world upside down' comedies; with Galuppi's music the opera was staged in Venice almost every year until 1759, and later also in Dresden and Moscow. The score displays Galuppi's characteristic command of harmony and orchestration, most notable in the large ensemble finales with which he and Goldoni decisively shaped opera buffa.