Ottone in Villa

Act I

As the title of the opera indicates, the action takes place entirely in the idyllic setting of a country villa belonging to the Roman emperor Ottone (Otho). His favourite, Cleonilla, is a flirt who is deceiving him with the handsome youth Caio Silio but at the start of the action is considering whether to initiate an affair with the page Ostilio. The latter is in reality Tullia, a noble young lady whom Caio on an earlier occasion seduced and abandoned. Dressed in men's clothes, she has entered Ottone's household with the aim of punishing her betrayer. (Caio has indeed noticed the similarity between this page and his ex-fiancée but fails to draw the right conclusion). While the emperor naively shuts his eyes to everything around him and is even prepared to brave the discontent of his subjects in order to keep Cleonilla, she makes a solemn declaration of love to the supposed Ostilio. Witnessing this from an off-stage position, Caio has a fit of jealousy. This makes Tullia glad, for this is her way of enacting revenge.

Act II

Decio, Ottone's counsellor, attempts to open his master's eyes to reality without directly accusing Caio, but then, in a tête-à-tête with the latter, lets slip some veiled allusions to his treachery. Caio fails to take the hint and instead sounds off against the pseudo Ostilio, who does not lose the opportunity to torment him further. Managing at last to find Cleonilla alone under a trellis, Caio hands her a letter filled with self-pitying reproaches and goes off. While Cleonilla is still reading the letter, Ottone catches her unawares and takes it. But Cleonilla keeps her wits and succeeds in persuading him that the letter was meant for Tullia. Turning reality inside out, she insists that it was Tullia who broke faith with her lover, who then sought her, Cleonilla's, aid to obtain prompt redress for the offence. Indeed, the cunning favourite pens on the spot a second letter addressed to Tullia, in which she exhorts her to keep her promise of marriage to Caio. This she hands to Ottone, all the while complaining bitterly of his lack of trust in her.

Decio's renewed pleas, which urge the deceived emperor to recognise the truth and return to his duties of state, fall on deaf ears: Ottone personally delivers the two letters - the original one and Cleonilla's feigned reply into the hands of Caio, criticising him for not having sought his help directly. Caio realises straight away what has happened and rejoices in his narrow escape while Tullia renews her protests against adverse fate and continues to plot revenge.

Act III

Still ensnared by his crazy passion for Cleonilla, Ottone rejects Decio's wise political counsels, blindly advancing down the road to ruin. For her part, Cleonilla insists on courting the presumed page, so arousing the wrath of the spurned Caio, who, under the pretence of defending his sovereign's honour, tries to stab his supposed rival. In the confusion that follows the failed attempt on Tullia's life, accusations of treason fly in all directions before the horrified emperor. However the revelation that Ostilio is a woman offers Cleonilla one further chance to clear her name by weaving a tissue of lies. Ottone apologises for his jealousy, welcomes back Cleonilla and unites in matrimony Tuilia and Caio, who is pleased to save his skin at such little cost. All the characters join in a final chorus of rejoicing - even poor Decio the unheeded counsellor, who does not however hide his doubts about the future of the empire.