Synopsis​

As in so many comic operas, the plot of La Scuola de‘ Gelosi is somewhat convoluted. It may be easier to follow if we first familiarize ourselves with its underlying constellationof characters. The focus of the opera falls on two couples who illustrate the theme of jealousy in mirror reflection. On the one hand is the bourgeois couple, the grain dealer Blasio and his wife Ernestina. Blasio is insanely jealous, although Ernestina has given him no cause for it. On the other hand we find the aristocratic couple, the Count and the Countess. Here the role of jealous lover falls to the Countess. She, however, has every reason to be jealous, for her husband makes no secret of his affairs. Between these two couples are three other figures: a pair of servants, Carlotta and Lumaca, andthe Lieutenant, who is introduced as a potential lover for the Countess but gradually develops into a scheming manipulator.​

Act I

At break of dawn, Blasio is creeping around in his own house, thinking he will catch one of his wife’s lovers sneaking out before dawn. All he does, however, is rouse the servants. By now Blasio is so jealous that he decides to undertake precautionary measures in order to lock Ernestina in their home while he is away. Ernestina, for her part, is so irked at her husband’s outbursts that she imagines a small dalliance herself. At this very moment a letter arrives from the Count. To dupe her spouse, she pretends to be reading a love letter, knowing full well that it is only a newspaper clipping. Meanwhile, on the grounds of her estate, the Countess seeks a conversation with her husband, who has apparently lost his affection for her. At first the Count thinks she is an unknown beauty – only to discover, to his disappointment, that it is his own wife. The two launch into a quarrel, which escalates when the Lieutenant enters with the intention of courting the Countess. After she has departed, the Count unveils his plan to the Lieutenant: he will seduce Ernestina, for, so he believes, wives of chronically jealous men are the easiest prey of all.​

Feigning business matters, the Count pays a visit to Blasio. Although Blasio is urgently needed away from home, he fears leaving Ernestina alone with the Count. When he has finally steered the Count out the door, he locks his wife inside as a precaution. But she has arranged for a spare key and persuades the Count, who rushes in at this very moment, to undertake a bizarre excursion to a “Madhouse for Jealous Lovers”. When Blasio returns, he notices to his horror that his wife has escaped. He resolves to stalk Ernestina and the Count, just as the Countess has resolved elsewhere to do the same. Ernestina and the Count visit the Madhouse of Jealous Lovers, not suspecting that Blasio is already there and is secretly eavesdropping on them. The Countess and her maidservant Carlotta arrive, disguised as gypsy women, and read the palms of the Count and his new flame. Fully aware of their identities, the gypsies have no trouble hitting the mark. Finally Blasio, completely losing his composure, emerges from his hiding place. The Countess, too, drops her disguise. A shouting match ensues until the warden of the madhouse becomes convinced that he had best keep the ladies and the gentlemen right where they are.​

Act II

The servant couple, Carlotta and Lumaca, enjoy a flirtation without letting things get out of hand. Meanwhile Blasio has arrived at the Count’s palace to give the unwanted lover a piece of his mind in the presence of the Countess and the Lieutenant. In reply, and for purposes of instruction, the Count shows him (and his wife) his art gallery. There we see paintings of Vulcan (Venus’s cuckolded husband) and Juno (the wife ofthe inveterate womaniser Jupiter), two prime examples of jealous lovers made to look ridiculous. The paintings give the Lieutenant an idea. He advises Blasio to attempt a ruse: he should feign to grant Ernestina every liberty and deliberately lure her into the Count’s palace. There she herself will become jealous as he nonchalantly drops the portrait of a lady who is purportedly his, Blasio’s, new lover. Blasio, though dubious at first, puts the plan into action. And indeed, Ernestina’s interest promptly turns toward her allegedly unfaithful husband – much to the chagrin of the Count. Meanwhile, the Lieutenant advises the Countess to do something quite similar: to play the adulteress with him in order to rekindle the Count’s feelings for her. The final scene takes place in rural surroundings. Here the Count has brought Ernestina on the pretext of wanting to surprise Blasio with his putative lover. But in fact the Count wants nothing more than a rendezvous with Ernestina herself. Blasio, far from being cured of his jealousy, has followed the two, along with Lumaca. From his hiding place, he imitates an echo for the Count and Ernestina. They set out to find its origin and discover – Blasio! At that very moment the Countess and the Lieutenant emerge, accompanied by Carlotta. Disguised as a shepherd and shepherdess, theysing of the joys of dalliance. The married couples now stand face to face, and all four feel they have every reason to be jealous. In this tension-filled moment, the Lieutenant resolves the plot by disclosing the two fictitious love affairs: his with the Countess, and Blasio’s with the lady in the portrait. The comedy comes to its appointed end: catharsis, forgiveness, joy and renewed oaths of fidelity.