- "Rita" is an Italian comic opera in one act, co-written by renowned composer Gaetano Donizetti and acclaimed playwright Gustave Vaëz. It tells the story of an innkeeper Rita who thinks her husband Gasparo had passed away in a shipwreck, and she decided to pick up the pieces and start a new life with her second husband Peppe. Surprisingly, Gasparo returns home safe and calls for a battle with Peppe to win back his wife. Both Gasparo and Peppe seem to work hard to fight for Rita, but in fact they are deceiving each other to play a game that both of them want to lose. It is worth noting that this version of the opera was filmed at the historical building Haw Par Mansion, and the lively performance of the singers also makes the whole show more distinctive.—P. Gordon
- Rita is a delicious farce representing the best traditions of Italian Opera Buffa. It was written at the end of Gaetano Donizetti's life, while he was living in Paris. Donizetti's music and Gustave Vaëz's libretto result is an Italian take on French opéra-comique with a story so familiar that it could be set anywhere - even Hong Kong. Rita owns a small restaurant and she happens to have two husbands too. She thinks the first husband (Gasparo) died in an accident, instead he had run away to Canada. During their relationship, he hadn't treated her very well, something which - with her new freedom -, she now takes out on her timid second husband (Beppe). As long as he knows, Gasparo believes Rita to be dead too. He's coming back to get her death certificate and be free to marry again. Beppe witnesses the appearance of his predecessor, clearly very much alive and married, and sees it as a chance to escape his marriage to the tyrannical Rita. The two men meet and agree to play a special game: the winner will keep Rita as his wife forever. It goes without saying that both will try hard to lose.—Peter Gordon
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