Der Sieg der Form über Substanz

In Puttanesca Rigatoni's exquisite libretto, argumentative Venetian merchant Don Iolio Contrario is employed as an operations manager in his father Don Figaro Contrario's struggling spice brokerage, where he meets, falls in love with an enchanting and gifted young brokeress Iolande Impulsivia . His father is obsessed with cost control, and has invested in a homunculus, a steam-powered computation machine which will take over the role of the brokers.

Don Figaro, a vain and stupid man who cares mainly about his legacy and reputation, is anxious to be seen as a great financial innovator. He is exasperated at his son for his errant, romantic, impractical ways.

Despite his Iolio's (accurate) warnings that the machine will be hopeless, devious rival Don Inago Montega tricks Don Figaro into a buying his machine, for which Don Figaro takes out a long-term loan from Don Inago at usurious prices.

In actual fact, Don Inago couldn't wait to get rid of the machine, as it was a colossal liability, and he has configured it to perform badly and to cripple Don Figaro's business.

With great fanfare Don Figaro takes delivery of the machine, which to everyone's surprise, works - but only because Iolande and Don Iolio are standing behind the machine ensuring it works and checking everything. It is her brilliant accounting which the machine produces.

Iolio and Iolande quickly fall in love, despite his controlling father's best intentions.

Don Figaro orders another machine, but to pay for it, must make Don Iolio and Iolande redundant. I have solved the problem of employees. Little does Don Figaro know!

In wrenching aria Sono Condannato a Essere un Esperto in Materia , Iolande drifts aimlessly around the canals of Venice with her Iron Mountain box, pondering whether there is any future to her life at all.

At the same time Don Iolio, locked in his father's operations room, ineffectually rails against the stupidity of his father's fashionable ideas (his song is Il mondo ha una merda per i cervelli).

Meantime the machine, without Iolande to prop it up, is a disaster and drives Don Figaro to the brink of ruin. Finally he comes to understand his folly (O! Consulente di Gestione Scioccca! </ref>"You foolish management consultant!" </ref> and sends out Don Figaro to find her, but she is floating face down in the canal at St Mark's Square.

See also

• Substance and form