Il cappello di paglia di Firenze (The Florentine Straw Hat, usually titled in English language productions as The Italian Straw Hat) is an opera by Nino Rota to an Italian-language libretto by the composer and his mother, Ernesta Rota Rinaldi, based on the play Un chapeau de paille d'Italie by Eugène Labiche and Marc-Michel. The opera premièred at the Teatro Massimo, Palermo, on 21 April 1955. The first performance in the United States was at the Santa Fe Opera in 1977, with Ragnar Ulfung as Fadinard, Ashley Putnam as Elena, Kathryn Day as Anaide, and Stephen Dickson as Emilio. The first New York City performance, starring Vincenzo Manno as Fadinard, took place in 1978. More recently, the opera was performed at the 2013 Wexford Festival. Roles Synopsis Place: Paris Time: 1850 Act 1 Fadinard's house The wedding day of Fadinard, a well-to-do young man, and Elena, the daughter of Nonancourt, a rich country bumpkin. Elena's deaf uncle, Vézinet, appears in Fadinard's house carrying a wedding present in a large cardboard box. Fadinard enters, still upset by the adventure he has just had: returning home by gig, his horse nibbled and gobbled down a which was hanging on a tree in the Vincennes woods. The owner of the hat, Anaide, appeared in a huff, accompanied by her husky escort, the officer Emilio. But the frightened horse set off at a gallop and swept his master home. As Fadinard waits for his bride, Anaide and Emilio unexpectedly appear and demand a hat exactly like the one the horse just ate. At the sound of carriages announcing the arrival of the party of wedding guests, Anaide and her would-be escort run off and hide in the next room. The loutish Nonancourt enters with his daughter Elena, the sweet, innocent bride, railing at his son-in-law with the constant refrain "Tutto a monte" (It's all off). The interminable outburst ends in screams of pain at the agonizing tightness of his new pair of shoes. As the old man struggles to get out of them at least temporarily, Fadinard and Elena, alone for the first time, give way to their blissful happiness. Meanwhile, the wedding party waiting impatiently in the carriages down in the street is heard singing: "Tutta Parigi noi giriam, lieti e felici siam." Nonancourt goes down with his daughter, as Fadinard stays behind to try and get rid of the two intruders. The