CAMBIALE DI MATRIMONIO, LA
(The Marriage Contract)

Comic opera in one act by Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868), to a libretto by Gaetano Rossi. First performance : Venice, Teatro Giustiniani di San Moise, 3 November 1810.

Tobias Mill(bass), an elderly shopkeeper, has just come to a profitable arrangement with the wealthy American businessman Slook (comic bass), who is prepared to pay a vast sum of money for a young wife. Tobias immediately thinks of his daughter Fanny (soprano). She is desperate because she is secretly in love with the young Edoardo Milfort (tenor). When the American arrives, he is very
pleased with his bride-to-be. Fanny, on the other hand, threatens to scratch his eyes out if he goes through with this marriage. Meanwhile Edoardo appears and asserts his own rights over Fanny. Slook is moved by the feeling the two young people have for each other. So he gives Edoardo the marriage contract and appoints him as his heir. When Tobias finds out that Slook is no longer going to marry his daughter, he flies into a rage and challenges the American to a duel. Before crossing swords, Slook lets Tobias know that Fanny loves Edoardo. The old man is placated by the fact that Edoardo has been made Slook's sole heir, and consents to the marriage. The opera ends in happiness and congratulations from all sides.

La cambiale di matrimonio was composed by Rossini when he was 18 years old and still lacked the neccesary knowledge and experience to be able to create a new and original opera, so the models he used for La cambiale were those of Italian school of the time. However, in the course of this opera, in which the comic elements combined with moments of feeling, it is already possible to recognize the emerging originality of style was to be Rossini's hallmark.