Il mondo della luna

The friends Ecclittico and Ernesto are in love with Clarice and Flaminia, daughters of Buona Fede, and Ernesto’s servant Cecco is enamoured with Lisetta, the maidservant of the same master. Although the passion of the three men is reciprocated, the sisters cannot free themselves from their father’s vigilance, and Lisetta cannot free herself from her master’s flattery.

To circumvent these obstacles, Ecclittico, a false astronomer, decides to convince Buona Fede that he has been invited to join the Emperor of the Moon and tricks him into drinking a false magic potion that would allow him to join the journey. Buona Fede wakes up in a garden – which in reality belongs to Ecclittico – and is exposed to a series of illusionary tricks designed to simulate the lunar environment. The servant Cecco disguises himself as the emperor and convinces Lisetta to agree to marry him. Clarice and Flaminia join the group by means of a “flying machine” and, with Cecco’s help, manage to manipulate Buona Fede’s opinion, marry Ecclittico and Ernesto, and receive their father’s blessing. Once the objectives of the deception are achieved, the characters dismantle the illusion, awakening Buona Fede’s anger and leading Lisetta to realise that, after all, she will not be an empress¹.