Il Falgname is a three act commedia per musica. It was commissioned by the Teatro dei Fiorentini in Naples and produced as the second opera of the Carnivale season of 1780. The libretto was written by Giuseppe Palomba. Il Falgname (The Carpenter) was one of Cimarosa's most popular and enduring works. It was staged all over Europe throughout the eighteenth century and on into the nineteenth. The opera was well loved by international audiences, and even produced by Haydn at Esterházy. But although other audiences found humor in the opera as well, Il Falgname was expressly written with a Neapolitan audience in mind, and contains a lot of Neapolitan dialect and humor native to the area. The construction of the opera is in three acts, with a very short third act. Eventually, Cimarosa would reduce the third act of his comedies into two scenes and a final duet. This quick conclusion quickened the pace of the denouement and strengthened the impact of the comedy.

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