Synopsis

Benvenuto Cellini, the great Florentine artist, is sentenced to hang, but he is pardoned when the duke realizes that he has not completed a previously commissioned sculpture. Freed, he is able to turn his attention to his favorite model (and object of his affections), Angela. The Duke also is interested in Angela. In a typical operetta plot, Cellini swashbuckles around the stage, keeping the Duke away from Angela, keeping himself away from the Duchess, and escaping yet another death sentence by fleeing to Paris, as the end of the show recapitulates the beginning.

Song list
 

• The Bell of Doom is Clanging
• Come to Florence
• Life, Love, and Laughter
• Our Master is Free Again
• I Have Just Been Pardoned
• You're Far Too Near Me
• Alessandro the Wise
• Sing Me Not a Ballad
• When the Duchess is Away
• The Nozy Cook
• The Duchess's Letter
• The Little Naked Boy
• We're Soldiers of the Duchy
• A Rhyme for Angela
• Hear Ye!
• The World is Full of Villains
• You Have to Do What You Do Do
• How Wonderfully Fortunate!
• Love Is My Enemy
• Come to Paris

Speaking roles -- Arlecchino, Columbina, Beatrice, Pierot, Flomina, Major Domo, Pantalone, Fiorinetta, Gelfomino, clerks, models, apprentices, vendors, courtiers, citizens.
Orchestra: 1 (picc). 1 (Eng hn) 2.1; 2.3.1.0; harp, guitar, timp & perc; strings.
Duration: full evening
 

Principal productions

• March 22, 1945, New York, Alvin Theater, John Murray Anderson, dir., Maurice Abravanel, cond.
• June 11, 1999, Wooster, Ohio Light Opera, James Stuart, dir., J. Lynn Thompson, cond.

EMI Classics CD 5 55563 2		Kurt Weill on Broadway:  [excerpts] Thomas Hampson, Elizabeth Futral, Jerry Hadley,  London Sinfonietta, John McGlinn, cond.
Capriccio CD 60091		Rodney Gilfry, Lori Ann Fuller, George Dvorsky, Felicity Palmer BBC Singers, BBC Symphony Orchestra Andrew Davis