Niccolò Vivaldi is a cello player and he plays in the Arena di Verona Orchestra. But he is not the first and neither the second cello. He is frustrated. Nobody can remember his face, nor his name. Niccolò is married to Costanza, who is really beautiful and he takes some pictures of her naked. Later he shows the pictures to a friend and so he feels better. He starts to write a comic opera called "Il merlo male" only to discover later he had written Rossini's "La gazza ladra". To maintain his self-esteem he can only show his wife.