In this bawdy comedy, Sicily has just been unified under the Kingdom of Italy and is under the command of a pompous new prefect, Eugenio Bortuzzi, who is hell-bent on staging an opera to inaugurate the towns new theater. But opera is religion to the Vigàtese and theyre in uproar over the production of an opera that theyve never heard of: The Brewer of Preston. For mysterious reasons of his own, Bortuzzi is dead-set on moving forward with the production, but the people in town have their own ideas about the event.While the drama of the impending premiere sets the stage for a raucous opening night, the good people of Vigàta are knee-deep in their own adventures: there is the illicit affair between one-eyed Gaspano and the young widow Lo Russo who meet in church; the powerful businessman, Don Memè, who metes out his own form of justice to curry favor with the prefect; the German fireman who seems to have invented the modern fire pumpwell, almost; and headmaster Carnazza who goes missing the day of the premiere, possibly forever.Other larger-than-life characterscharmers, cheaters, and chuckleheadslive in this preposterous place where the opera onstage is as deranged as the audience.