Giannina e Bernardone is one of several operas composed by Cimarosa for the 1781 opera season. It was composed for the Teatra San Samuele in Venice. A dramma giacosa in two acts, it was composed to a libretto by Filippo Livigni. This was one of Cimarosa's most popular comic operas, and was performed everywhere. It was produced under the title Il Villano geloso, and in Germany it became Hännchen und Bernardon. It concerns the ever popular subject of marital jealousy. The thick-headed husband is unreasonbly jealous for his wife, who eventually outsmarts him and gets her revenge. The two are finally reconciled, and a second pair of lovers are united in a joyous wedding celebration. This is one of the few Cimarosa operas to have been performed internationally through the centuries up until the twenty-first.

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