This new Dynamic opera was performed in Donizetti's native city of Bergamo, during the most important world festival dedicated to the Italian composer. The opera is set in a rural environment and the action takes place in a country farm. It is a brilliant comedy with many points of contact with semi-serious operas. The choice of this subject must have been strongly influenced by the successes of Vincenzo Bellini's La Sonnambula. The music is folksy and the melodic writing frank and straightforward with a broad variety of passages of high technical content and more elegiac in character; such is the case of the most famous piece in the whole opera, the aria "Una furtiva lagrima", which is also the leitmotiv of the soundtrack of the 2005 film Match Point, directed by Woody Allen.

This centenary performance of Umberto Giordano' Marcella was prepared from the composer' manuscript, the score and parts having been destroyed during World War II.