A performance of Donizetti's opera 'Don Gregorio' at the Bergamo Music Festival in November 2007. Director Roberto Recchia sets the performance in the 1920s, a time which mirrors in many ways the political and social conditions prevailing when the piece was originally written. Spoken dialogues in the Neapolitan dialect are used in place of the recitatives, but Donizetti's music remains unchanged. The characters in this comic opera are inspired by the Italian Commedia dell'Arte.