About the work
La gazzetta is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to a libretto by Giuseppe Palomba, based on Carlo Goldoni's comedy 'Il matrimonio per concorso' (1763); it premiered on 26 September 1816 at the Teatro dei Fiorentini in Naples. For the score, Rossini drew on numbers he had already written for 'Il Turco in Italia' and 'La pietra del paragone'.
Plot
In Paris, the wealthy Don Pomponio places a newspaper advertisement to find a husband for his daughter Lisetta by open competition. Several suitors become entangled in a web of mistaken identities, disguises and a staged duel that culminates in a masked ball, before the right couples finally come together and receive their fathers' blessing.
Cultural significance
The opera satirises the growing power of the press over social life. Because Rossini reused much of the music from earlier works, Palomba had to adapt his text after the fact to fit the existing score. The autograph score is held at the Naples Conservatory.