Donizetti’s L’aio nell’imbarazzo (‘The Embarrassed Tutor’) is a melodramma giocoso in two acts, premiered to considerable acclaim in 1824. Its subject is the belated attempt by the elderly Marquis Giulio to keep his sons innocent of the ways of world and the comedy of errors that result. Two years later Donizetti drastically revised the opera, which duly appeared under the title Don Gregorio. This production uses the critical edition and restores the work, as far as possible, to Donizetti’s original conception – including excised arias, and emphasising the composer’s sparkling orchestration.