On December 6, 1774, Mozart and his father Leopold traveled to Munich in order to oversee the first performances of a new opera composed by the eighteen-year-old Wolfgang. Based on a libretto by Giuseppe Petrosellini, the opera in question was a full-length three-act opera buffa, La finta giardiniera, K. 196 (The Would-Be Gardener), commissioned by the Bavarian Elector for the Munich Carnival season of 1774-1775. The premiere, originally planned for December 29, was delayed until 13 January 1775, to allow more rehearsal time. The following day, Mozart wrote home excitedly to his mother in Salzburg: "My opera. . . was such a success it is impossible for me to describe the applause . . . ." In typical comic opera fashion, La finta giardiniera features a conjunction of upper and lower class characters, the eponymous gardener being a marchesa in search of her lover, who believes he had killed her in a lover's quarrel. Exploitation of the dramatic potential of a woman disguised as a man was common from the earliest comic operas (Leonardo Vinci's Li zite n'galera of 1722 is an example), offering the opportunity to dwell on the complications arising when other female characters fall in love with the handsome young "man." Although the story of La finta giardiniera is predictable and quite stereotypical, Mozart transformed it into one of the best of his early works, a delicious opera that bubbles with vitality and confidence. Characterization is infinitely more acutely observed than was the case in La finta semplice, Mozart's first full length opera buffa composed ten years earlier. For the first time Mozart was able to juxtapose successfully serious and comic episodes, farce and tragedy, and to achieve a synthesis of Italian and German styles that points forward to the great Da Ponte trilogy of the following decade. Several years later, the opera was adapted as a German Singspiel with spoken dialogue replacing the sung recitatives. Under the title Die verstellte Gärtnerin, it was first given in this form in Augsburg in 1780, subsequently attaining greater popularity than the Italian version. In modern times, this adaptation has provided the only source, the first act of the original having at some point been lost.

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