Don Pippo, Marchese di Ripasecca, a vain and haughty fool, has by his ill-treatment forced his wife, Donna Pantea, to leave him; he believes her dead, but she is living, concealed at a place over the seas. Biondello, hated by him, loves his daughter Celidora, whom he intends to marry to Count Lionetto di Casavuota; he himself has fallen in love with her companion Lavina, who has come to an understanding with Calandrino, Biondello's friend and Pantea's relative. The two maidens are confined in a fortified tower and closely guarded. In full conviction of his security, Don Pippo has been induced to promise Biondello that if he succeeds in gaining access to Celidora within the year, her hand shall be his reward. Hereupon, Calandrino, a skilful mechanic, has constructed an artificial goose large enough to contain a man, and with machinery capable of motion; this is conveyed to Pantea, who, disguised in Moorish costume, is to display it as a show; it is hoped that Pippo may consent to its exhibition before the two maidens, and that Biondello may thus be conveyed into the tower. As a condition Calandrino exacts from his friend a promise of Lavina's hand. The opera begins on the anniversary of the wager. Don Pippo is about to marry Lavina, and awaits the arrival of Count Lionetto; his house is filled with preparations for festivity. The curtain rises on the whole household, including the coquettish maid Auretta and her lover the house-steward, Chichibio, having their hair dressed. Calandrino {MOZART AS AN OPERA COMPOSER.} (54) enters in much perturbation; Pantea has not arrived, and a violent storm gives rise to the fear that she may fail altogether; some other device must be hit upon. He promises marriage to Chichibio and Auretta, if they can succeed in abstracting Don Pippo's clothes, and preventing his leaving the castle, which they undertake. The scene changes: Celidora and Lavina are conversing on a terrace on the fourth story of the tower, to which they have obtained access in secret; the lovers appear below on the other side of the moat, and a tender quartet is carried on. The new plan is to throw a bridge across the moat and scale the tower. Workmen arrive and the task is eagerly commenced; but Chichibio and Auretta, chattering about their marriage, have failed to keep watch, and now announce that Don Pippo has gone out; he himself speedily appears, summons the watch, stops the work, and drives away the lovers.