The Household
In the household of Don Anchise, the Podestà (mayor) of the small Italian town of Lagonero, things are not what they seem. His new gardener, Sandrina, is actually the Marchioness Violante Onesti — a noblewoman who was stabbed by her jealous lover, Count Belfiore, and left for dead. She survived, and now hides her identity, tending flowers while nursing a broken heart. Her faithful servant Roberto has followed her into disguise as the gardener Nardo. The Podestà is hopelessly smitten with Sandrina. His maid Serpetta is furious — she had her eye on marrying the master herself. Meanwhile, the young knight Ramiro wanders the estate in misery: the Podestà's niece Arminda has thrown him over for a richer suitor.
The Podestà in Love
Don Anchise pursues Sandrina with comic intensity, declaring his passion in increasingly extravagant terms. Sandrina politely deflects him, singing quietly about how women must endure men's foolishness in silence. Nardo, meanwhile, tries his luck with Serpetta, who strings him along while plotting to recapture the Podestà's attention. The household simmers with competing desires and petty jealousies — a powder keg waiting for a spark.
Belfiore Arrives
The spark arrives in the person of Count Belfiore — Arminda's wealthy new fiancé, and the very man who stabbed Sandrina and left her for dead. Belfiore breezes in full of confidence, praising Arminda's beauty, blissfully unaware of what awaits him. Arminda, proud and possessive, warns him that she expects absolute fidelity. Belfiore laughs it off — he is as changeable as a weather vane, he admits cheerfully, blown by every passing breeze.
Serpetta Schemes
Serpetta, seeing the Podestà's attention permanently diverted to Sandrina, decides to take matters into her own hands. She sighs prettily about wanting a husband and boasts about her own irresistibility, laying the groundwork for future mischief. She will stop at nothing to undermine Sandrina and win the master back.
Recognition
Sandrina, alone, sings of her grief — a turtledove mourning its lost mate. Then Belfiore sees her for the first time. He is thunderstruck: this gardener looks exactly like the Violante he believes he killed. Sandrina faints at the sight of him. The entire household erupts — Arminda suspects betrayal, the Podestà is baffled, Ramiro sees his chance, and accusations fly in every direction. The act ends in magnificent chaos, with all seven voices tangling in a whirlwind of jealousy, guilt, and confusion.
Jealousy and Pursuit
Act II opens with the fallout. Arminda rages at Belfiore for his obvious fascination with the gardener. Nardo tries to lighten the mood with comic wooing. But Belfiore cannot help himself — he keeps seeking Sandrina out, gazing into her eyes, drawn back to the woman he destroyed. Sandrina hears a voice in her heart telling her to hope. The Podestà, meanwhile, loses all patience as his household descends into romantic warfare.
Accusations
Ramiro arrives with devastating news: Belfiore is wanted for Violante's murder. Belfiore begins to crack under the pressure — he grows cold, then frantic, as guilt overwhelms him. Serpetta observes the chaos with cynical detachment: love is nothing but trouble, she says. The situation spirals: Arminda, consumed with jealousy, has Sandrina kidnapped and abandoned alone in the wilderness.
The Dark Garden
This is the heart of the opera and its most astonishing sequence. Sandrina, abandoned in a dark garden, cries out in anguish and terror. Belfiore finds her, but both have been pushed past the limits of sanity. They believe they are mythological lovers — Medusa and Alcides, Tirsi and Clorinda. The rest of the cast stumbles through the darkness, calling and colliding, unable to find each other or themselves. The Act II finale builds from eerie whispers to wild pandemonium: a night scene of extraordinary power that anticipates the psychological depths Mozart would reach in his great operas a decade later.
Recovery
Dawn breaks, and sanity gradually returns. Nardo surveys the wreckage and marvels at love's contradictions. Belfiore and Sandrina, still dazed and confused, encourage each other to go on living. Slowly, touchingly, their real identities begin to resurface. The madness lifts like a fog, and underneath it, their love for each other is still there — battered but unbroken.
Reunion and Forgiveness
Belfiore and Sandrina finally recognise each other and are reunited in a duet of extraordinary tenderness. Ramiro confronts Arminda one last time and tells her to go — but his heartbreak is so genuine that she relents and returns to him. The Podestà accepts with comic grace that he has lost the gardener-girl. Serpetta settles for the faithful Nardo. In the final chorus, all seven voices unite: 'Long live the gardener-girl!' — and everything that was broken is made whole.