La finta semplice (The Fake Innocent), K. 51 (46a) is an opera buffa in three acts for seven voices and orchestra, composed in 1768 by then 12-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Leopold chose an Italian libretto by the Vienna court poet Marco Coltellini, which was based on an early work by Carlo Goldoni.

The opera was recorded in its entirety by Leopold Hager for Orfeo in January 1983 with Helen Donath and Teresa Berganza, a performance lasting two hours 45 minutes.

It was given in March 1985 at the Bloomsbury Theatre as part of the Camden Festival conducted by Nicholas Cleobury, directed by Robert Carsen, with Patricia Rozario, Glenn Winslade and Janis Kelly among the cast.

The Emperor suggested to Leopold that Wolfgang write an opera for performance in Vienna to show his remarkable skills to the Viennese public as he had already done all over Europe.

Leopold thus chose a buffa libretto, and for so doing, he simply went to the established librettist in Vienna, who happened to be the Florentine Marco Coltellini, an Italian "poet" who was to replace Metastasio as "poeta cesareo" at the Imperial court of the Habsburgs in 1769.

Then, Coltellini started making alterations, on the request of Mozart and the singers, and took so long that Easter of 1768, the projected date of the first performance, went by.

"Mozart refused to be troubled by this, but continued to work on the opera, eagerly and enthusiastically, writing new arias whenever he was asked to do so", (Abert, p. 86), soon completing a score in three acts, with 26 numbers, covering 558 manuscript pages.

Young Mozart thus ended up composing a substantial major opera, lasting (in Leopold Hager's 1983 recording) 2 hours and 45 minutes.

Christoph Willibald Gluck was in town supervising the production of his new opera Alceste, and Leopold wondered whether he was also part of the intrigue against young Mozart.

Leopold resorted to a test of improvisation to prove young Mozart's authentic composition skills to elite aristocrats.

"He would throw open a random volume from Metastasio's works and invite Wolfgang to provide a musical setting with orchestral accompaniment, of whichever aria he hit upon" (Abert, p. 87).

The same singers who had "declared themselves well satisfied with music that they described as grateful, now began to fear for the success of the production when they saw how much effort was being expended on preventing it from going ahead.

Abert gave an extensive musical analysis of the opera, and underlined the high quality of many arias written by Mozart, such as: and the 3 ensembles of the finales of each act, where young Mozart displays his remarkable facility in synchronizing the parts of 7 singers: It is not credible that the singers could have shown displeasure at such charming arias.

In fact, the turmoil put everybody's reputation at stake, including that of the Salzburg Prince-Archbishop, whose employees the Mozarts were, representing him in Vienna.

Leopold wrote that the artists employed and recommended by the archbishop should not be treated as "liars, charlatans, and impostors who venture forth, with his gracious permission, to throw dust in people's eyes like common conjurors" (30 July 1768, Abert, p. 88).

In fact, "Affligio was an adventurer and gambler who had obtained his officer's commission by fraud...His complete lack of any understanding of art is clear...He was finally sent to the galleys for forgery."

The whole affair had "dragged on for 9 months" and in order "to salvage his reputation", Leopold wrote "an indignant petition to the emperor on 21 September 1768, complaining of a conspiracy on the part of the theatre director Giuseppe Affligio, who apparently claimed that Wolfgang's music was ghost-written by his father, and proving Mozart's output by including a list of his compositions to that time."

Leopold was also requesting the payment of the 100 ducats promised on delivery of the score in the initial Affligio contract plus the reimbursement of his expenses.

The Empress had 16 children, including 5 sons ("Archdukes"), and she was an important relative of a fair number of monarchs and aristocrats who might have been in a position to give Wolfgang a permanent job.

The failure in 1768 cost young Mozart his chance of establishing his reputation as a first-class opera composer in Vienna, which would have been a jumping board for obtaining a permanent position in another European court.

Leopold exulted in his letter (19 October): "In a word, it grieves me, but Wolfgang's serenata has so overshadowed Hasse's opera that I cannot describe it."

Hasse had been Maria Theresa's music teacher 38 years earlier, and had remained her favorite musician and personal friend.

His mother answered, in a famous letter of 12 December 1771, advising her son against it: You ask me to take the young Salzburger into your service.

He and his sergeant Simone have been lodging for two months in the home of Don Cassandro, who lives in his grand house with his weak-in-the-head brother Polidoro, and their beautiful sister, Giacinta.

The wily soubrette Ninetta devises a plan to outwit the brothers, with the collaboration of Rosina, Fracasso's sister, who happens to be "visiting".

Rosina (prima donna) poses as a naïve innocent who is going to make both brothers fall in love with her until they agree to the marriages.