About the work
La notte di un nevrastenico is a one-act comic opera by Nino Rota to a libretto by Riccardo Bacchelli. Rota composed it in 1950 as a radio work; RAI broadcast the radio premiere on 19 November 1959, while the stage premiere did not follow until 8 February 1960 at the Piccola Scala in Milan.
Plot
A sleepless, high-strung hotel guest books three adjoining rooms just to be left in peace, but the porter secretly rents out the two neighbouring rooms anyway. First a loud, self-important guest, then an amorous couple keep disturbing the neurasthenic through the night.
Cultural significance
The piece won the 1959 Prix Italia for radio works. On stage, however, it was overshadowed by Rota's more successful buffa opera Il cappello di paglia di Firenze, to which contemporary critics unfavourably compared it.