Act 3

The scene opens in the place where the dwelling of the Fairy Morgana was located. A large tree could be seen, under which there was a large stone in the shape of a seat. Various boulders were also scattered across the countryside.

Smeraldina, whose language was a mix of Turkish and Italian, stood on the shore of the lake waiting for the Fairy's orders. She grew impatient and called out.

The Fairy emerged from the lake. She recounted having been to Hell and learned that Tartaglia and Truffaldino, aided by Celio, were coming, pushed by a devil’s bellows, victorious over the three Oranges. Smeraldina scolded her for her ignorance in magic and was angry. Morgana instructed her not to tire. By an accident arranged by her, Truffaldino would arrive in that place separated from the Prince. A magical hunger and thirst would torment him. Having the three Oranges with him would lead to great incidents. She handed two enchanted pins to the dark Smeraldina. She said that under the tree, she would see a beautiful girl sitting on the stone. This would be the bride chosen by Tartaglia. She was to cunningly insert one of the pins into the girl's head. The girl would turn into a dove. Smeraldina would sit in her place on the stone. Tartaglia would marry her, and she would become Queen. At night, while sleeping with her husband, she was to plant the other pin in his head; he would turn into an animal, thus leaving the throne free for Leandro and Clarice. Smeraldina found difficulties in this plan, especially in being recognized at court. Morgana's magic would smooth out all impossibilities, as one must believe. She led Smeraldina away to instruct her better because she saw Truffaldino coming, pushed by the infernal wind.

Truffaldino came running, the Devil blowing him, with the three Oranges in a sack. The Devil disappeared. Truffaldino recounted that the Prince had fallen a little distance away due to the force of the run: he would wait for him. He sat down. A prodigious hunger and thirst assailed him. He decided to eat one of the three Oranges. He felt remorse, creating a tragic scene. Finally, tormented and blinded by the prodigious hunger, he resolved to make the great sacrifice. He reflected that he could recover the loss with two pennies. He cut an Orange. What a miracle! A young girl dressed in white emerged from it, who, faithfully following the text of the Tale, immediately said:

"Give me something to drink, alas! I am dying, my idol,

I am dying of thirst, alas! Quickly, cruel one. Oh God!"

She fell to the ground, taken by a mortal languor. Truffaldino did not remember Celio's orders not to open the Oranges except near a fountain. Stupid by instinct and desperate from the miraculous incident, he did not see the nearby lake; the only solution that came to his mind was to cut another Orange and help the dying girl with its juice. He immediately performed the foolish act of cutting another Orange, and behold, another beautiful girl emerged, with this text in her mouth:

"Alas, I am dying of thirst. Oh, give me drink, tyrant.

I am bursting from thirst, oh God! I am fainting from anguish."

She fell like the other. Truffaldino expressed his great torments. He was beside himself, desperate. One of the girls continued with a feeble voice:

"Cruel destiny! I will die of thirst; I am dying, I am dead."

She expired. The other added:

"I die, cruel stars: alas, who comforts me!"

She expired. Truffaldino wept and spoke to them tenderly. He resolved to cut the third Orange to help them. He was about to cut it when Tartaglia furiously entered, threatening him. Frightened, Truffaldino fled, abandoning the Orange.

The astonishment and reflections of this grotesque Prince on the shells of the two cut Oranges and the two girls' corpses were indescribable.

The funny masks of the Commedia dell'arte in such a similar circumstance make such graceful absurdities, shortcuts, and pleasant jokes that neither ink can express them nor poets surpass them.

After a long and ridiculous soliloquy, Tartaglia saw two peasants passing by and ordered the honorable burial of the two girls. The peasants took them away.

The Prince turned to the third Orange. To his surprise, it had grown monstrously large, like a giant pumpkin.

He saw the nearby lake, and remembering Celio's advice, decided it was the right place to open it. He opened it with his sword, and a great and beautiful girl dressed in white silk emerged, who, fulfilling the text of the serious subject, exclaimed:

"Who draws me from my center! Oh God! I am dying of thirst.

Quickly give me something to drink, or you will weep for me in vain."

(she fell to the ground.)

The Prince understood the reason for Celio's order. He was confused as he had nothing to fetch water with. The situation didn't allow for politeness. He took off one of his iron shoes, ran to the lake, filled it with water, and, apologizing for the improper drinking vessel, gave relief to the girl, who, strong, rose and thanked him for the help.

She told him that she was the daughter of Concul, King of the Antipodes, and had been condemned with two sisters by the cruel Creonta, by enchantment, into the shell of an Orange, for reasons as believable as the situation was believable. A facetiously romantic scene followed. The Prince swore to marry her. The city was near. The Princess had no decent clothes. The Prince obliged her to wait for him sitting on the stone under the tree's shade. He would return with rich attire and the entire court to take her. This concluded, they parted with sighs.

Smeraldina, astonished at what she had seen, came out. She saw the shadow of the beautiful girl in the water of the lake. There was no danger that she would not diligently carry out what is narrated in the Tale of this Smeraldina. She no longer spoke Turkish-Italian. Morgana had put a Tuscan Devil in her tongue. She challenged all poets to speak correctly. She discovered the young Princess, whose name was Ninetta. She flattered her, offered to fix her hair, approached her, and betrayed her. She planted one of the two portentous pins in her head. Ninetta turned into a dove and flew into the air. Smeraldina sat in her place, waiting for the court; she prepared to betray Tartaglia with the other pin that night.

To all the marvelous mixed with the ridiculous and the childishness of these scenes, the audience, informed from their earliest years by their nurses and grandmothers of the events of this tale, were deeply engrossed and tightly engaged in the daring novelty of seeing them exactly represented on a stage.

To the sound of a march, the King of Cups, the Prince, Leandro, Clarice, Pantalone, Brighella, and the entire court arrived to solemnly take the Princess bride. The new appearance of Smeraldina, found and not recognized due to Morgana's witchcraft, enraged the Prince. Smeraldina swore that she was the Princess left there. The Prince did not fail to make the audience laugh with his despair. Leandro, Clarice, and Brighella were happy. They saw where the mystery came from. The King of Cups became serious and obliged his son to keep his princely word and marry Smeraldina. He threatened. The Prince, with clownish shortcuts, agreed, all sadness. The instruments played. The group went to court to celebrate the wedding.

Truffaldino had not come with the court. He had obtained the Prince's forgiveness for his mistakes. He had been given the position of royal cook. He stayed in the kitchen to prepare the wedding banquet.

The scene that followed after the court's departure is the boldest of this playful parody. The two parties of the Sirs Chiari and Goldoni, who were in the theater and realized the biting trick, tried every effort to put the audience into a tumult of indignation, but all efforts were in vain. I have said that, in the person of the magician Celio, I had depicted Mr. Goldoni, and in the person of Morgana, Mr. Chiari. The former had once been a lawyer in the Venetian forum. His writing style bore the imprint of the writings customary for lawyers in that respectable forum. Mr. Chiari boasted of a Pindaric and sublime style; but, with all due respect, no puffed-up and unreasonable writer of the seventeenth century surpassed his excessive transgressions.

Celio and Morgana, adversaries and furious, meeting formed the scene that I will transcribe entirely with the same dialogue and as it happened.

Note that if parodies do not resort to caricature, they never achieve the desired effect, and indulgence should be granted to a whim that arose from a purely cheerful and playful spirit, but very friendly in the essential matters of Mr. Chiari and Goldoni.

Celio (coming out impetuously, to Morgana): "Most wicked witch, I have already learned of all your deceit; but Pluto will assist me. Infamous witch, cursed witch."

Morgana: "What talk is this, charlatan magician? Don't provoke me; for I will give you such a rebuke in hammer verses that I will make you die frothing at the mouth."

Celio: "At me,

 you throw hammer verses? Me, whose head is full of dead men?"

Morgana: "Who are these dead men?"

Celio: "These are dead jurists. I was a lawyer in Venice; there are my writings, which have no beginning, no middle, and no end."

Morgana: "You won’t make fun of me with this fallacious wordplay, and if you don’t shut up, I will bombard you with sublimities from my Arcadia that will blow you up."

Celio: "Oh, laughable witch! Come, I will swallow you."

Morgana: "And I will squash you with my verses, with my celestial verses."

Celio: "Have mercy! Don’t let me die in such great pain."

Morgana: "For nothing else are my divine productions good."

Celio: "Evil witch, go back to Hell with your false prophecies, your foolish magic, and your loathsome rages. Your enchantments will not serve you; for in court, the divine braves will have the upper hand. I have already caused the miracle to be revealed, and in the second scene of the fourth act, the true spouse of Tartaglia will appear."

Morgana: "I will ruin everything."

Celio: "We shall see. The great connoisseur of verses is on my side, and my horns are of better alloy than yours."

Morgana: "Very well, let’s go back to Hell."

They departed, each towards their respective throne of a pumpkin.

The entire theater burst into laughter at this mixture of extravagant madness. Neither Mr. Chiari nor Goldoni did anything. I was assured of their irreconcilable enmity. I took care of mine, which was nothing but to bring this absurd intrigue to a good end. The wedding banquet being prepared, the envious courtiers rushed to poison the Prince’s food and drink, along with Ninetta’s. Tartaglia’s ministers were complicit. Leandro and Clarice, Smeraldina’s confidants, would be punished for their crimes by Divine Providence.

Truffaldino was busy preparing the wedding feast. He sang in the dialect of his Bergamo:

"Here’s the soup and the delicious meat stew, here’s the pie and the cake.

I’m cooking for the wedding; I’m cooking for the wedding; it’s all ready, it’s all ready.

Dum di dum di dum dum."

The little dove Ninetta entered with the faithful Brighella, the Prince's confidant. It had come to light by the many tricks of Celio. The innocent dove, led by instinct to the cook, with tender coos perched on his shoulder and gently tapped his lips with its beak, wanting to kiss him. In the funny dialect of his country, Truffaldino tenderly called it "cuckoo."

The dove pulled out a hair from its head. Truffaldino, terrified, tried to find the trick, but Brighella assured him it was true magic. He understood everything. Celio made the dove speak through the spell. It asked Truffaldino to kill it, and after much hesitation and suffering, he reluctantly did so. The spell was undone, and Ninetta returned to her original form.

Seeing her alive, Truffaldino became ecstatic and almost fainted, causing an uproar of applause in the theater.

In thanks, Ninetta made him the Prince’s master cook and chief valet.

The horn sounded. The court arrived for the wedding.

The King of Cups, the Prince, Leandro, Clarice, and the entire court sat at the table.

Smeraldina, with a crown on her head, danced around the table, singing a little song with grotesque steps and grimaces. At the last line of the verse, she whispered in the Prince's ear, inviting him to come to bed soon, as a great thing was about to happen. The two lovers snickered secretly.

Ninetta entered, dressed as a girl of high rank. She swore she was the wife of Tartaglia. Smeraldina was perplexed.

The King of Cups, enraged, ordered the Prince to immediately marry the bride chosen by fate.

Ninetta took off her headwear and told the entire misfortune of her two sisters and herself, recounting the story of her transformation. She ordered Truffaldino to tell how she had been turned back into a girl. Smeraldina, having heard that the dove had emerged from the girl, changed color. Ninetta made her repeat all the offenses and scorn the Prince had suffered from her and the two evil ministers. The people cried out for revenge.

Morgana and Creonta suddenly appeared. The entire audience cried out. The ceiling of the theater seemed to fall. The lights went out. There was a blackout of confusion and dismay. The King of Cups and the rest of the court ran away. Tartaglia, stunned, trembled with horror. In the midst of the confusion, the two criminal women kidnapped Ninetta. Celio entered. He had caused the terrifying spectacle. He stopped the impetuous action of the audience by removing the darkness with his magic wand and enlightening the scene.

The King of Cups and the entire court returned to the scene. The two Princesses, poisoned in the food and drink, woke up with a grandiose ceremony. A phantasmagoric scene appeared. The wedding took place between Tartaglia and Ninetta. Truffaldino was given the position of principal butler and first waiter. The two poisoned ministers were condemned to drink the bitter cup. Morgana and Creonta were set on fire by the burning sun's rays. A general reconciliation was established. The farce ended with the concluding couplet sung by the entire cast:

"Our kingdom is full of peace;

Each day brings us some joy.

Pleasure abounds among us;

Even the air we breathe is full of it."

This closing couplet, like the entire opera, is the faithful translation of the Tale of Three Oranges.