I due timidi is a one-act radio opera (also described as a commedia lirica) composed in 1950 by Nino Rota

Nino Rota

Nino Rota was an Italian composer and academic who is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti...

 with libretto by the film writer Suso Cecchi d'Amico

Suso Cecchi d'Amico

Suso Cecchi d'Amico was an Italian screenwriter and actress. She worked with virtually all of the most celebrated post-war Italian film directors, and wrote or co-wrote many award winning films—among them:...

.

Performance history

It was originally written as a radio production for Radio Audizioni Italiane

RAI

RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...

 and first performed, on air, on 15 November 1950. The first staged production was in London at the Scala Theatre

Scala Theatre

The Scala Theatre was a theatre in London, sited on Charlotte Street, off Tottenham Court Road, in the London Borough of Camden. The first theatre on the site opened in 1772, and the theatre was demolished in 1969, after being destroyed by fire...

 (London Opera Club) on 17 March 1952. It was also given at the Teatro Petruzzelli

Teatro Petruzzelli

The Teatro Petruzzelli is the largest theatre of the city of Bari and the fourth Italian theatre by size.-The birth and the golden age:The history of the Teatro Petruzzelli of Bari begins when Onofrio and Antonio Petruzzelli, traders and ship builders of Trieste presented the design of the theatre...

 in Bari

Bari

Bari is the capital city of the province of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, and is well known as a port and university city, as well as the city of Saint Nicholas...

 on 18 January 1971, and at the Teatro Donizetti

Teatro Donizetti

The Teatro Donizetti is an opera house in Bergamo, Italy. Built in the 1780s using a design by architect Giovanni Francesco Lucchini, the theatre was originally referred to as either the Teatro Nuovo or Teatro di Fiera. The first opera to be mounted at the theatre, Giuseppe Sarti's Medonte, re di...

 in Bergamo

Bergamo

Bergamo is a town and comune in Lombardy, Italy, about 40 km northeast of Milan. The comune is home to over 120,000 inhabitants. It is served by the Orio al Serio Airport, which also serves the Province of Bergamo, and to a lesser extent the metropolitan area of Milan...

 on 23 October 1972.

It was revived by the Wiener Kammeroper

Wiener Kammeroper

Wiener Kammeroper is an opera theatre and opera company founded by conductor Hans Gabor. As early as 1948 he initiated the "Vienna Opera Studio" - a company without a theatre of its own...

 opera company in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 in 2007. and again by the Santa Fe Opera

Santa Fe Opera

The Santa Fe Opera is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe in the U.S. state of New Mexico, headquartered on a former guest ranch of .-General history:...

 as part of their "One-Hour Opera" program in the spring of 2008.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, 15 November 1950 (Conductor: Franco Ferrara Franco Ferrara Franco Ferrara was an Italian conductor.After obtaining diplomas in piano, violin, organ and musical composition at the Conservatory of Bologna, Ferrara began his career as violin player in Bologna, in Rome and in Florence, with the Orchestra of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino...  )
Mariuccia	soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...	Emma Tegani
Lucia	soprano	Ida Farina
Maria	soprano	Mirella Ronconi
Signora Guidotti	mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...	Graziella Sciutti Graziella Sciutti Graziella Sciutti was an Italian soprano opera singer and later vocal teacher and opera producer.-Career:Sciutti was born in Turin, Italy. Her parents were musical, her father being an organist; her mother was French...
Lisa	mezzo-soprano	Scilly Fortunato
Raimondo	tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...	Amedeo Berdini
Dr Sinisgalli	tenor	Mario Carlin
Vittorio	baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...	Lorenzo Catacchio
Narrator	spoken	Calogero Calabrese
Mariuccia's mother	mezzo-soprano

Recordings

Rota: I due timidi, Orchestra Filarmonia Veneta 'G F Malipiero', Chorus of the Teatro Sociale di Rovigo

• Conductor: Flavio Emilio Scogna
• Principal singers: Paolo Drigo, Shin Young-Hoon, Sabrina Testa, Lorenzo Battagion, Nunzio Galli, Giuliano Scaranello
• Release date: 2005
• Label: Bongiovanni 2367 (CD)