Elisa e Claudio

The Plot

Act I
The story takes place in Tuscany, Italy, in the early nineteenth century. The Marquis Tricotazio and his daughter Silvia have arrived to visit Count Arnoldo a day earlier than expected. The Marquis is looking forward to Silvia’s marriage with the Count’s son Claudio, but Silvia is in love with Celso, a former fellow-student of Claudio who has joined the Marquis’s retinue. The Count suspects that Claudio wishes to marry someone else and has confined him to his room for a year, but Claudio agrees to the marriage, which is a ruse that allows him to move more freely and visit Elisa, whom he has secretly married. However, the Count’s servant Luca has discovered the existence of Elisa and the two children that she has borne to Claudio.

Act II
Elisa and her children are staying with her friend Carlotta. She is longing to be reunited with Claudio. Carlotta arrives, indignant that Claudio is apparently going to marry Silvia. Claudio appears and is reproached by the women, but he convinces them that his consent to the marriage is a pretence