Don Checco is an opera in two acts composed by Nicola De Giosa to a libretto by Almerindo Spadetta.

Its protagonist and a guest at the inn is Don Checco Cerifoglio, an elderly gentleman deep in debt and fleeing the bailiff of the mysterious Count de Ridolfi.

After years of neglect, it was revived in 2014 in a co-production by the Teatro San Carlo in Naples and the Festival della Valle d'Itria in Martina Franca.

The success or failure of the work often depended on the skill of the basso buffo singing the lead who would improvise many of his lines, sometimes addressing the audience directly.

De Giosa's Don Checco was Raffaele Casaccia, a veteran of Neapolitan opera houses famed for his comic interpretations.

Two of the other key basso buffo roles, Bartolaccio and Succhiello (Don Checco's main antagonists), were taken by Giuseppe Fioravanti and his son Valentino.

Music historian Sebastian Werr has pointed out that the impoverished Don Checco, who initially obtains free room and board at the inn through deception but ultimately has his debts forgiven, can be seen as fulfilling a fantasy of the Teatro Nuovo's audiences.

According to Werr, the finale, Don Checco's paean to indebtedness, is also an affirmation of the notion, "often seen as characteristically Neapolitan, that a certain brazenness is necessary to getting by in life.

For performances outside Naples, the libretto was usually adapted for local tastes, with Don Checco's lines translated from Neapolitan into Italian.

The adaptations included Carlo Cambaggio's Italian version of the libretto which converted Spadetta's original prose into verse.

[d][5][11] The opera's first performance in modern times took place on 25 September 2014 in the court theatre of the Royal Palace of Naples, the former home of Ferdinand II.

The revival was a co-production by the Teatro San Carlo in Naples and the Festival della Valle d'Itria in Martina Franca.

Roberto, an artist staying at the inn, sits to one side of the room painting at his easel and seemingly uninterested in the goings-on.

Poorly dressed and completely frazzled, he is on the run from a bailiff pursuing him for the many debts he owes to Count de Ridolfi.

Still believing that Don Checco is really Count de Ridolfi, the young couple are convinced that he has interceded with Fiorina's father to allow the marriage.

The opera ends with Don Checco singing a lengthy soliloquy on indebtedness and noting that it can sometimes lead to unforeseen happiness.