La gazzetta (The gazzette), dramma per musica (opera) in two acts to a libretto by Giuseppe Palomba, revised by Andrea Leone Tottola, was first produced at the Teatro dei Fiorentini, Naples, on 26th September 1816.
The singers at the first performances were Margherita Chabrand (Lisetta), Francesca Cardini (Doralice), Maria Manzi (Madama La Rose), Carlo Casaccia (Don Pomponio), Felice Pellegrini (Filippo), Alberico Cozioni (later Curioni) as Alberto, Giovanni Pace (Anselmo), Francesco Sparano (Monsù Traversen).
The autograph manuscript full score is to be found at the Naples Conservatory of Music.
The story is based on Goldoni’s comedy Il matrimonio per concorso (Marriage by competition) (1763).

Story
Act I
Madama La Rose, Traversen and Alberto are walking in a Parisian garden. Alberto is looking for a woman who can satisfy his needs, and his complaints are interrupted by the arrival of a newsboy bringing the Gazzette with all the latest news. Don Pomponio, who has entered meanwhile, has placed an advertisement in this very Gazzette offering his daughter Lisetta in marriage. This advertisement sets everyone laughing and they all call the advertiser a “madman” and a “beast” without realising that he is the very man who has just joined them.
After Anselmo and his daughter Doralice have arrived at Filippo’s inn, the next to come in is the frivolous and exuberant Lisetta, who is worried that her father’s ill-timed advertisement in the Gazzette might be an obstacle to her secret engagement to the innkeeper. Alberto’s arrival sets off a whole set of misunderstandings: he guesses that Lisetta is the young lady referred to in the advertisement but Filippo insists that he is her husband and Alberto therefore turns his attention to Doralice, thinking that she must be the person meant in the Gazzette. Filippo tries to divert Don Pomponio’s suspicions by pretending to be Madama La Rose’s husband and arouses his hopes by telling him that a rich Quaker who might be interested is about to arrive. The Quaker will be none other than Filippo himself in disguise; Lisetta knows about the Quaker masquerade but the news of Filippo’s supposed marriage to Madama La Rose is unwelcome to her, and, believing herself betrayed, she falls into a rage. Filippo comes on in his Quaker costume and begins to admire Lisetta’s charms, whilst she continues to scorn him. Now Filippo is worried that his plan might not be successful, Alberto cannot understand which of the young ladies is really Don Pomponio’s daughter, and Lisetta realises that she has overdone her scornful rejection of Filippo.

Act II
Traversen, who has been rather out of things so far, now comes forward and asks Anselmo for his daughter Doralice’s hand in marriage. Doralice, who is in love with Alberto, objects and Madama La Rose intervenes, in no uncertain terms recommending the young lady not to miss this good chance. Alberto, seeing Doralice arm-in-arm with Traversen, feels betrayed. Meanwhile the innkeeper and his beloved make their peace.
Filippo assures Alberto that Doralice loves him and suggests a new scheme to trick the strict fathers, Anselmo and Don Pomponio. The latter finds himself partaking in a mock duel in which he starts out as a hero only to end up as a weak-kneed coward who begs to be let off and then makes himself scarce. Fear spurs him to hasten the arrangements for his departure, whilst Lisetta tries to gain time first by fainting and then by pretending to go mad. With the excuse of the imminent arrival of some Turks, Filippo organizes a masked ball and suggests to Dom Pomponio that this might offer new and interesting possibilities for his daughter. As a father he is terrified of marrying his daughter to a foreigner but Filippo persuades him that his name, in this way, might figure among the great ones of the earth. Don Pomponio dresses up as a Turk for the masked ball but finds the four lovers all dressed in similar costumes; so he begins to get angry, making a disturbance that gives the four lovers the chance to slip away. Madama La Rose tells Traversen and the two fathers that by now the young people have arranged themselves definitively into two couples: all that remains is to forgive them.