Note: Much of the story is told, not in the dialogue, but in the song lyrics to which there are links below.

ACT I
The scene is the Piazzetta in Venice with the Ducal Palace on the right. A group of Contadine, including Fiametta, Giulia and Vittoria, are tying bouquets of roses as they sing of how, since it is unseemly for them to speak of their love themselves, they will let the bouquets speak for them (List and learn, ye dainty roses). In particular, two of the Gondoliers are the objects of all twenty-four of the girls' affections. During the chorus, twenty-two of the gondoliers, including Antonio, Francisco and Giorgio drift on.

The girls tell them the roses are for Marco and Giuseppe Palmieri who will get to choose two of the girls first. Then the rest of them will be available for the other gondoliers. Until then the men should enjoy their dolce far niente. The merry gondoliers agree not to contradicente. (For the Merriest Fellows Are We)

Marco and Giuseppe appear in a gondola and greet the girls with an Italian song: Buon' Giorno, Signorine! They then sing We're Called Gondolieri.

It is now time for the two men to choose their brides. It will become evident that they have preferences but, to appear fair, they propose to play blind-man's bluff and marry the ones they catch. The girls tie handkerchiefs over the two gondoliers eyes, but the men immediately show they can peek under them. After turning around three times they play the game and, just as they had hoped, Giuseppe catches Tessa while Marco catches Gianetta. They thank Fate for the results; the other couples pair off, and all hurry off to the weddings.

After they have gone, a gondola arrives with the Duke of Plaza-Toro, his wife the Duchess, their daughter Casilda, and their attendant Luiz (who carries a drum). Their once sumptuous clothes are now old and faded. Introducing themselves, they explain they have come From the Sunny Spanish Shore to Venetia, but they are not happy. If they ever get back to Spain they will never leave again. They then see the Ducal Palace. The Duke would have preferred to arrive at the Ducal Palace, where the Grand Inquisitor lives, on horseback. However, it must have been an unusually wet season; all of the streets are flooded.

When the Duchess berates Luiz for not kneeling when the Duke calls him, Casilda remarks that she can't stand presumptions in plebeians; he does not appreciate the respect which is due to a Castilian hidalgo with ninety-five quarterings. The Duke asks about the halberdiers and the band who were to escort them on their visit to the Grand Inquisitor. However, it seems they all demanded to be paid in advance. He calls the band sordid. Prompted by his wife, the Duke sends Luiz to 'demand' an audience with the Grand Inquisitor and, after he leaves, they tell a State secret to Casilda. (It has been kept a secret for twenty years!) When Casilda was six months old, she was been married by proxy to the infant son of the King of the wealthy island of Barataria! To their surprise, the girl is not pleased: they took an unpardonable liberty! He then tells how, although they are poor now, he is in the process of turning himself into a company and expects to become wealthy. The baby boy is the reason they have come to Venice. It seems that, shortly after the marriage, the King converted to 'Wesleyan Methodism of the most bigoted and persecuting type'. The Inquisitor could not allow that to take root in Barataria, and he arranged to steal the baby boy and bring him to Venice. Now the Methodist King has been killed in an insurrection, and they have come to find his son and proclaim him and their daughter King and Queen of Barataria. The Duke and Duchess kneel before their daughter. The girl can only think that she has nothing to wear which is suitable for a Queen.

The Duke tells her that he is in the process of being turned into a corporation to be called the Duke of Plaza-Toro, Limited. When Casilda protests that such a thing has never been done before, her father responds that the Duke of Plaza-Toro does not follow fashion, he always leads. In the army he sometimes led his regiment into action, and he always led them out of it. (In enterprise of a martial kind)

As soon as the Duke and Duchess go into the palace, Casilda and Luiz fall into each other's arms. It seems her earlier scorn had been feigned to hide their love for each other. Sadly, however, as she is now married, it must be their last embrace. When she tells him she is married to the son of the King of Barataria, he reveals that the stolen baby was entrusted to his mother to be nursed. They then recall how much in love they were only fifteen minutes before; that love must now be dead. (The was a time)

The Duke and Duchess reappear with the Grand Inquisitor. The Duke introduces Casilda to Don Alhambra saying she is jimp. Alhambra takes a shine to her but she treats him with disdain. He is not sure of the young King's identity, but there is no doubt he is in Venice. (I stole the Prince, and I brought him here.) He was entrusted to a highly respectable (but usually drunk) gondolier who had a son the same age. The now dead gondolier had never been able to tell the two boys apart; only Luiz's mother will be able to tell which is the King. Since she is now the wife of a highly respectable and well-established brigand who operates near Cordova, they will have to find her first. If she has trouble deciding between the two men, the torture chamber will jog her memory. In a quintet they sing about the question of the King's whereabouts, Try we life-long, we can never straighten out life's tangled skein. Then all but the Inquisitor go into the palace.

The happy newly married couples return and are saluted by the chorus. (Bridegroom and bride!) Tessa responds with When a Merry Maiden Marries. As she finishes, Don Alhambra, the Inquisitor enters and, except for the two newly married couples, the alarmed Gondoliers and Contadine shrink from him and leave. Marco and Giuseppe, who both think they are the sons of Baptisto Palmieri, know him but do not realize he is the Inquisitor. He is dismayed to hear that they have just married. He knows that one is the Prince of Barataria and is already married to the daughter of the Duke of Plaza-Toro; thus one is a bigamist.

The two young men are firm Republicans and believe that all men are equal. They abhor kings and ranks of all kind. The Inquisitor gives them the startling news that one of them is the new King of Barataria but, if that is the way they feel, they should abdicate at once. The men quickly change their minds. They only hate bad kings; a king who would abolish taxes and give free entertainments would be acceptable. The satisfied Don tells them he has arranged for them to rule jointly as one person until the matter is settled. They must leave for Barataria immediately; they may take their friends and give them places at court. However, they can not take any ladies, not even their new wives! Gianetta objects. (Kind Sir, You Cannot Have the Heart Our Lives to Part.)

ACT I FINALE:
The Inquisitor assures them the parting will be brief, just until they find the King's foster mother and she identifies the real ruler. The girls are comforted by the thought that soon one of them will be a Queen with jewels and fine clothes. In a quartet, the two couples envision how it will be. (Then One of Us Will Be a Queen) The new king (i.e. both men) announces 'his' plan. A post will be found for anyone who wishes one and all will be equal. (For Everyone Who Feels Inclined)

The couples sing their farewells (While you're away), a Xebeque is hauled in, all the men embark, and they sail away.

ACT II: The Court of Barataria. Three month later.
Marco and Giuseppe, magnificently dressed, are on their thrones busily cleaning the crown and scepter. (For three months they have been doing all the work around the palace.) None of the other gondoliers, whose dress represents a variety of ranks, are working. All are busy playing games or otherwise enjoying themselves without regard to social position. After all, they are all Republicans. The kings are doing everything they can to make their courtiers happy. (Two kings, of Undue Pride Bereft) They have only one complaint. Although they are acting as one, they are actually two people and cannot subsist on the one ration they are allowed between them. The courtiers agree to give them each a ration, but they must then work twice as hard. Giuseppe describes their day. (Rising Early in the Morning)

They are quite happy with their present situation except for the lack of female society. Marco sings Take a Pair of Sparkling Eyes. Suddenly the Contadine run in; they have risked their lives to sail to Barataria. (After Sailing to this Island) Tessa and Giudetta ask which is the King and are told they won't know until the Nurse turns up. Giuseppe then suggests they celebrate their reunion with a banquet and a dance. (We Will Dance a Cachucha, Fandango, Bolero) The dance is interrupted by the appearance of Don Alhambra who is astonished to find all the 'servants' dancing with the aristocracy. Shouldn't they be in the servants' hall. But Marco and Giuseppe have taken over the servants' hall as their private space. The Inquisitor can't understand this at all. He tells of another king who tried an experiment on equality which backfired. (There Lived a King) When cloth of gold was common its loses its allure and "Up goes the price of shoddy", and "When Everyone is Somebody, then no one's Anybody!"

Don Alhambra then announces that the Duke of Plaza-Toro will soon arrive with the Duchess and their daughter, and, for the first time, tells the gondoliers that one of them is married to Casilda and is therefore a bigamist. They have found the Nurse and she is now in Torture Chamber waiting to be interviewed. Meanwhile Tessa and Gianetta should act like single young women. In a quartet (In a Contemplative Fashion), the two couples try to sort everything out. Then all leave.

A procession of Retainers precedes the entrance of the now richly clad Duke, Duchess and Casilda. The Duke is now His Grace the Duke of Plaza-Toro, Limited as a result of which the family's situation has vastly improved. Prompted by the Duchess, he demands to see the King. When Casilda says she will be a dutiful wife, but she can never love her husband. In return, the Duchess tells how she learned to love the Duke. (On the Day When I Was Wedded) However, Casilda can only hope that, when her husband meets her shady family, he will repudiate the marriage contract. This upsets the Duke who says that a nobleman with ninety-five quarterings cannot be shady. He explains how he earns his new found wealth. (Small Titles and Orders)

Marco and Giuseppe arrive. (This is the first time the two groups have met.) The Duke is very upset by the lack of a grand reception he had expected to receive, not even a Royal Salute for his daughter the Queen. He then proceeds to teach the gondoliers how to be a King. (Quintet: I am a courtier grave and serious) The Duke and Duchess leave and Casilda tells the Gondoliers that she is in love with someone else. Tessa and Gianetta enter and are introduced as their wives. The five resolve to find some solution to the fix they all are in. (Here's a fix unprecedented!)

FINALE
Don Alhambra returns with Inez, the Nurse who to the astonishment of all, reveals that she switched the Prince with her own son. Luiz is the real King. (The Royal Prince) Luiz and Casilda happily embrace and all rejoice at the satisfactory outcome.

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Revised December 2010
Please credit Lyric Opera San Diego when using this material.