ZERLINA Mme. BOSIO.
LADY ALLCASH Mlle. MARAI.
FRA DIAVOLO Sig. GARDINI.
LORD ALLCASH Sig. RONCONI.
BEPPO Sig. TAGLIAFICO.
GIACOMO Sig. ZELGER.

The original of the story of Fra Diavolo is to be found in Lesueur's
opera, "La Caverne," afterwards arranged as a spectacular piece and
produced in Paris in 1808 by Cuvellier and Franconi, and again in
Vienna in 1822 as a spectacle-pantomime, under the title of "The
Robber of the Abruzzi." In Scribe's adaptation the bandit, Fra
Diavolo, encounters an English nobleman and his pretty and susceptible
wife, Lord and Lady Allcash, at the inn of Terracina, kept by Matteo,
whose daughter Zerlina is loved by Lorenzo, a young soldier, on the
eve of starting to capture Fra Diavolo when the action of the opera
begins. In the first scene the English couple enter in great alarm,
having narrowly escaped the robbery of all their valuables by Fra
Diavolo's band. The bandit himself, who has followed them on their
journey in the disguise of a marquis, and has been particularly
attentive to the lady, enters the inn just as Lord Allcash has been
reproving his wife for her familiarity with a stranger. A quarrel
ensues in a duet of a very humorous character ("I don't object"). Upon
the entrance of Fra Diavolo, a quintet ("Oh, Rapture unbounded!")
ensues, which is one of the most effective and admirably harmonized
ensembles Auber has ever written. Fra Diavolo learns the trick by
which they saved the most of their valuables, and, enraged at the
failure of his band, lays his own plan to secure them. In an interview
with Zerlina, she, mistaking him for the Marquis, tells him the story