I gioielli della Madonna (English: The Jewels of the Madonna) is a opera in three acts by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari to an Italian libretto by Carlo Zangarini and Enrico Golisciani, based on news accounts of a real event.

First performed in 1911, the opera's controversial themes include love between a brother and his adoptive sister, implied criticism of the Catholic Church, and an on-stage orgy.

)[1] The opera was next staged in Chicago for the work's United States premiere and the opera's first performance in the Italian language in January 1912 by the Philadelphia-Chicago Grand Opera Company (PCGOC) with conductor Cleofonte Campanini and a cast that included tenor Amedeo Bassi as Gennaro, Louise Berat as Carmela, Carolina White as Maliella, Mario Sammarco as Rafaele, Francesco Daddi as Biaso, Jenny Dufau as Stella, Mabel Riegelman as Concetta, Marta Wittkowska as Serena, Emilio Venturini as Ciccillo, Edmond Warnery as Totonno, Nicolò Fossetta as Rocco, and Rosina Galli in the dancing role of Grazia.

[4] The work was also staged in New York in 1913, this time at the Century Opera House with Elizabeth Amsden drawing particular praise for her performance as Maliella.

[5] In 1918 the Chicago Grand Opera Company staged the work with Giacomo Rimini as Rafaele, Rosa Raisa as Maliella, and Giuseppe Gaudenzi as Gennaro; a production which the company brought the Manhattan Opera House in New York in 1922.

[9] However, the work was not favorably received by French critics when it was staged at the Paris Opera in 1913 with tenor Leon Campagnola as Gennaro and Vanni Marcoux as Rafaele.

The complete opera was revived May 2015 at the Slovak National Theatre, Bratislava, and recorded for Naxos.

A square in Naples by the sea Carmela's house, an inn, Biaso's hut, and Gennaro's smithy are visible.

In his blacksmith shop, Gennaro is making a candelabra, placing it on the anvil reverentially, as on an altar.

Maliella is a wilful girl, wanting to be rid of the tyranny of her household and wishing to throw herself into the life of the city.

When Carmela reappears with a pitcher of water on her head, the wayward girl is dashing along the quay joyously laughing.

Carmela tells her son how she vowed to the Madonna to seek an infant girl, born of sin, and adopt her, in order to help her sickly boy.

There is a touching duet for mother and son, in which Carmela bids him go and pray to the Madonna, and Gennaro asks for her blessing, before he leaves to do so.

As the Madonna is brought past in procession during tolling of bells and cheers from the people, Rafaele pours words of passion into Maliella's ears.

Rafaele swears that for the love of Maliella he would even rob the sacred image of the jewels and bedeck her with them—something so sacrilegious that it would never be considered.

She says she will have freedom, rushes up the staircase to her room, where she is seen putting her things together, while she hums, "E ndringhete, ndranghete" (I long for mirth and folly).

As if lost in a reverie, with eyes half-closed, she recalls how Rafaele offered to steal the jewels of the Madonna for her.

Gennaro, at first shocked at the sacrilege in the mere suggestion, appears to yield gradually to a desperate intention.

He goes to a cupboard under the stairs, takes out a box, opens it by the light of the lamp at the table, selects several skeleton keys and files, wraps them in a piece of leather, which he hides under his coat, takes a look at Maliella's window, crosses himself, and sneaks out.

He throws back the folds of the damask and spreads out on the table, for Maliella, the jewels of the Madonna.

A hidden refuge of the Camorrists on the outskirts of Naples On the left wall is a rough fresco of the Madonna, whose image was borne in procession the previous day.

In the midst of an uproar of shouting and dancing, while Rafaele, standing on a table, cracks a whip, Maliella rushes in.

There is an extant recording of the opera, made in 1967, featuring Pauline Tinsley, André Turp and Peter Glossop, conducted by Alberto Erede.