Mirandolina (opera)

Mirandolina (H. 346) is a 1953–54 comic opera in three acts by Bohuslav Martinů, with an Italian-language libretto by the composer after Carlo Goldoni's 1751 comedy The Mistress of the Inn (La locandiera). The opera, incorporating stretches of spoken dialogue between the characters against an orchestral background, was premiered on 17 May 1959 (shortly before the composer's death) at the Prague National Theatre, Czechoslovakia, when it was conducted by Václav Kašlik.

David Pountney has described the opera as "the work where Martinů's strain of fast-moving, neo-Classical style comes into its own... finding room for witty and ironic musical references to Italian madrigals, French vaudeville and Italian opera buffa". Martinů's biographer Brian Large noted several highlights from the score: a coloratura aria in Act 1 Scene 6 for Mirandolina as well as waltzes, intermezzos and a saltarello, the latter having been recorded in 1973 by the Czech State Philharmonic Orchestra Brno conducted by František Jílek.

The opera was the second musical adaptation of Goldoni's play, the first being a dramma giocoso by Antonio Salieri which premiered at the Vienna Kärtnertortheater in 1773.