brazenness is necessary to getting by in life." Performance history The premiere of Don Checco on 11 July 1850 at the Teatro Nuovo was a resounding success. It had an initial run of 98 performances, and in 1851 the Teatro Nuovo's production with its singers and orchestra were imported to the "Royal Opera House" of Naples, the Teatro San Carlo, for a special performance to benefit the city's poor. According to contemporary accounts it raised a vast sum of money. The opera was a particular favourite of King Ferdinand II who often attended its performances in Naples. On a state visit to Lecce in 1859, the city had prepared a gala performance of Verdi's Il trovatore for him. However, when Ferdinand heard the plans and found out that Michele Mazzara, a famous Neapolitan basso buffo, was in town, he demanded that his hosts put on Don Checco instead: "Trovatore and Trovatore, I want to hear Don Checco. I want to have fun." The theatre duly organized the performance on a few hours notice. In the four decades after its premiere Don Checco would have over 80 different productions. It was performed throughout Italy and abroad, including France, Malta, Cairo, Barcelona and Madrid, and was still being performed in Naples as late as 1902. For performances outside Naples, the libretto was usually adapted for local tastes, with Don Checco's lines translated from Neapolitan into Italian. The adaptations included Carlo Cambaggio's Italian version of the libretto which converted Spadetta's original prose into verse. Another version of the libretto published in 1877 adapted the story for an all-male cast with the innkeeper's daughter Fiorina (the sole female character in the original version) becoming the innkeeper's son Fiorino. Despite its great popularity, Don Checco had fallen from the repertoire by the early 20th century, although it was later evoked in "Don Checchino", a bravura patter song composed by Raffaele Viviani for performance in his 1933 play L'ombra di Pulcinella. The opera's first performance in modern times took place on 25 September 2014 in the court theatre of the Royal Palace of Naples, the former home of Ferdinand II. The revival was a co-production by the Teatro San Carlo in Naples and the Festival della Valle d'Itria in Martina Franca. It was performed using a critical edition of the score by Lorenzo Fico and was directed by Lorenzo Amato who updated the time setting from