First act
Disguised as an old servant, Malandrino learns from the municipal clerk Spaccamonti that Lidia, the daughter of the mayor Babbeo, will be married in a few hours. The naïve writer does not notice that Malandrino is in fact the notorious leader of a gang of thieves. He also fails to notice that he is only to be questioned because the bandits are planning a new prank: In the hustle and bustle of the wedding celebration, a coup could very well be carried out because all the guests are busy eating, drinking and dancing. Malandrino easily manages to lure Spaccamonti and the police into the mountains with a false lead. He simply claims that the robber chief is up to mischief there and can easily be caught.

The bride and groom are ready to marry; but the cunning Babbeo keeps delaying his consent. He doesn’t like Gaetano as a son-in-law. Instead of having nothing, he would rather see his daughter marry the rich Lelio from Aversa. When Babbeo is given a letter from Lelio, his face brightens. The preferred candidate asks him for his daughter’s hand and assures him that he is already on his way. The mayor then sends the wedding guests home and explains that the celebration will be postponed. He also doesn’t want to see Gaetano anymore, since Lidia could now play a better game.

The bride is in complete despair. Gaetano is the only possible husband for her. Her friend Stella recommends that the equally unhappy bridegroom contact the bandit captain Malandrino and tell him about his misfortune. The captain always understands young lovers and knows how to help them in his own way. Although Stella doesn’t know the chief bandit at all, she has a crush on him because rumor has it that he only steals from the rich and gives his loot to the poor.

Second act

After the failed wedding, Gaetano intends to secretly kidnap his bride. He comes across the boss of the bandits and describes his misery to him. When Malandrino then heard that Gaetano’s rival should actually have already arrived at the port, he got an idea.

Meanwhile, Babbeo has instructed the schoolmaster Tondolo to pick up Lelio at the port. However, before he reaches his goal, he is attacked and robbed by Malandrino’s henchmen. The robber captain comes in and plays the philanthropist by ordering the gang to return all the loot to the robbed. Beaming with happiness, Tondolo now wants to do his rescuer a favor. Malandrino suggests robbing the incoming suitor together. Because Tondolo doesn’t like his client Babbeo anyway, he is happy to be persuaded to do so.

Everything works like clockwork. Lelio not only gets rid of his bag of money, but also has to swap clothes with Malandrino. In the habitus Lelios, Malandrino summons the people and pretends to be the rich suitor of Babbeo’s daughter, who was almost attacked by a robber. Together with the schoolmaster, however, he managed to arrest him. In no time the supposed bandit is arrested and put in prison.

Malandrino introduces himself as Lelio to the mayor. In voluptuous words he tells him how he managed to get the long-sought bandit captain out of circulation. Babbeo is visibly proud to soon be able to call such a capable hero his son-in-law. Of course, he also receives the reward of 1000 ducats offered for catching the robber.

After Lidia has received the promise from Malandrino that he will bring her love for Gaetano to a happy ending, she pretends to accept his courtship and plays a couple in love with him. Her friend Stella, however, believes that she sees the noble robber whom she adores in the arrested Lelio, and immediately falls madly in love with him. But when it is said that he must end his life on the gallows tomorrow, she cannot be consoled.

Third act

The next morning, the wedding preparations are in full swing. Babbeo can hardly wait for the marriage contract to finally be signed. The “groom” plays for time and encourages Lidia to sing a happy song. Meanwhile, “Lelio’s” supposed friends – in reality they are the bandits – surround the wedding party. The hustle and bustle is abruptly interrupted when the municipal clerk Spaccamonti appears and announces that the man languishing in prison is not the robber captain at all, but Lelio from Aversa. But the real Malandrino is Tondolo. Now Malandrino believes the time has come to end the wrong game. With his pistol drawn, he reveals his incognito, presents Gaetano with Lelio’s money bag and the 1000 ducat bounty and forces

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FULL Banditenstreiche (Franz von Suppé) Munich 1964 Anton de Ridder, Heinz Herrmann, Hedi Klug, Dorothea Chryst

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