Sipario!

Sipario! Rulebook

Table of Contents

Objective of the Game

The goal of the game is to become the best theatrical impresario of your time, and to do so you must achieve the greatest possible notoriety. Notoriety, expressed in Notoriety Points (PN), is earned by staging your own operas, completing the casts of your opponents' operas, putting on extra shows, and buying PN with gold.

To get a play experience that suits your tastes and the time you have available, Sipario! offers two different ways to climb to success: playing against the clock, or playing to a PN target.

Timed challenges

The sharpest high note! 30 minutes. A lightning-fast game in which the winner is whoever can, in half an hour, use the most cynical strategies to gain notoriety.
A cantata in company. 60 minutes. A relaxing and gripping game in which to test your entrepreneurial gifts.
Meditating on the opera. 90 minutes. Make yourselves comfortable, study your own and your opponents' playbills carefully, because you will have to show that you are excellent strategists.

PN target challenges

All in one evening! Race to 25 PN. No frills: you must get noticed, and do it quickly, because the finish line is close for everyone.
Serving your apprenticeship in the provinces. Race to 50 PN. Will you be able to manage a notoriety that will take you to your first important stage? Nobody suspects how hard it can be to "serve your apprenticeship in the provinces".
Olympus of music. Race to 100 PN. A true operatic marathon from which you will certainly emerge changed, and surely enriched... above all in malice and in the ability to land low blows, because a good voice is not enough to become the best on Olympus!

Ending a timed game: when the chosen time is reached, the game stops once each impresario has completed his turn in the current round. In case of a tie, leave it to chance by tossing a coin, or settle it with a singing contest (the author adds, "but on this last option I do not feel I can give any indication!").

Ending a PN target game: the game stops at the end of the round in which a player reaches and/or exceeds the target score. If more than one impresario has reached the PN target, the winner is the one who exceeded it by the greatest margin. In case of a tie, as explained above, leave it to chance or to your vocal cords.

Keep in mind that playing against the clock or to a PN target calls for different ways of climbing to success. You will therefore be able to form tacit alliances to hinder the most ambitious impresarios while at the same time favouring your own rise.

Setting Up

Begin by singing! The player with the highest voice (the rulebook leaves it to you to decide the best way to choose!) is the dealer (mazziere). This role passes to the next player clockwise at the start of each new game.

First, each participant chooses a coloured marker and places it on the Notoriety Board above the "Sipario! chi è di scena" logo, beside space number 1. Then each player receives 8 gold coins (ori) and 4 blind discard markers (see "Blind Discard").

Next, the dealer shuffles the deck of 40 opera cards and, clockwise, deals 3 opera cards to every player, including himself. These cards represent each impresario's theatre season. Remember not to show them to your opponents! During this preliminary phase, you may exchange one opera card for 1 gold.

After the opera cards have been dealt, it is time to take up the play deck, which contains the singer cards and the action cards. The dealer deals 7 play cards to each participant, including himself.

You are now ready to start your game of Sipario!

The Notoriety Board

The Notoriety Board is placed in the centre of the table. It carries the scoring track for the notoriety you earn as the game goes on, and the spaces for the play deck and its discard piles. At the start of the game, place your marker above the "Sipario! chi è di scena" logo, beside space number 1.

The card spaces are:

"Play deck" (Mazzo di gioco): for the play deck of the same name.
"Discard pile" (Mazzo degli scarti): for cards discarded during normal turns.
"Debut pile" (Mazzo dei debutti): for the cards used in staging shows.
"Blind discard pile" (Mazzo degli scarti al buio): for cards played with a blind-discard marker.
"Exceptions pile" (Mazzo delle eccezioni): for exceptional discards.

Full details are in the chapter "Discard Piles".

The Opera Deck

The opera deck is made up of the 40 cards representing the operas you can stage. Each card shows the title of the opera, its author, and the date and place of its first performance; below that is the cast needed to put on the show. Inside the blue hexagon is the PN bonus for the complete debut of the production (see "Notoriety Points per Opera"). At the end of every game the opera deck must be reshuffled.

The Play Deck

The play deck is made up of the singer cards and the action cards together. At the end of each game it must be reshuffled or, if it runs out during a game, it must be regenerated from the discard pile, the debut pile and the blind-discard pile.

Action Cards

Action cards let you increase the PN of your productions, hinder your opponents, defend yourself against their attempts at Unfair Competition, and work out a variety of strategies.

There are 60 of these cards, divided into 25 types. Each card has a short description of its effects and of any special actions available (marked "Sp").

As printed on the cards themselves, their effects can be:

Positive (Positivi)
Negative (Negativi)
Neutral (Neutri)

Combinations of action cards can be cancelled by eliminating the effect of one of the cards that make them up.

Example: Player A debuts Don Pasquale and decides to use Sublime Aria and Claque for his Norina, gaining +3 PN. Player B, during his turn of Unfair Competition, cancels the effects of Sublime Aria with a Clamorous Off-Key Note. Norina now receives only the effects of Claque, i.e. +1 PN. Full details are in the section "Action Card Details".

Singer Cards

Singer cards let you put together the casts needed to stage your operas. There are 100 of these cards, divided into 5 types of performer:

Prime donne (prima donna)
Grandi interpreti (great interpreters)
Ugole d'oro (golden throats)
Debuttanti (debutants)
Studenti (students)

They are further divided by voice type, from highest to lowest:

Male voices: Tenore (T) tenor, Baritono (Br) baritone, Basso (B) bass.
Female voices: Soprano (S) soprano, Mezzosoprano (Ms) mezzo-soprano, Contralto (C) contralto.

Full details are in the chapter "Types of Singers and Types of Role".

The Fool

As in any card game worth the name, Sipario! has a joker called "The Fool" (Il Matto). This card may be used as any of the cards in the play deck, with the exception of the Prime donne. The Fool may also be used to avoid the effects of the following action cards: Twist of Fate (Colpo di scena), Press Conference, Announced Flop, Agency Wheeling-and-Dealing, Paparazzo, and Stagehands' Strike. The Fool is not subject to the effects of Unfair Competition.

Discard Piles

Discarding your cards in Sipario! is not an ordinary action: your decisions may determine your opponents' choices and strategies as well. The game has several types of discard pile:

Discard pile (Mazzo degli scarti). For cards that exceed the maximum number a player may hold, namely 13 (see "Minimum and Maximum Play Cards"). Each player may draw from here the card discarded by the player before him. Used to regenerate a new play deck if necessary.
Debut pile (Mazzo dei debutti). For cards used in opera debuts, in Unfair Competition, in extra shows, and for the following action cards when used during turns: Twist of Fate, Press Conference, Announced Flop, Agency Wheeling-and-Dealing, Paparazzo, Stagehands' Strike, and Foyer Gossip. It is not permitted to draw from this pile. Used to regenerate a new play deck if necessary.
Blind discard pile (Mazzo degli scarti al buio). For cards eliminated with blind-discard markers and for unused Prime donne. Each player may draw from here the card discarded by the player before him. Used to regenerate a new play deck if necessary.
Exceptions pile (Mazzo delle eccezioni). For cards excluded from any regeneration of the play deck during a game: Prime donne (when used), The Fool, and the Chief Danno card (when used). It is not permitted to draw from this pile.

A card may be discarded without showing it to the other players (face down). To do this, use a blind-discard marker (segnalino Scarto al buio).

The player who follows the one who discarded blind may still decide whether or not to draw that card.

Gold

Gold (ori) represents the budget you have available for special actions, such as engaging a Prima donna, paying the audience to whistle or applaud during performances, using a singer in a role that is not theirs, and much more. At the start of the game each player receives 8 gold, which can increase depending on the actions taken.

Spending Gold and Running Out of Gold

Besides all the actions explained later, gold may be invested in two specific cases:

Acquiring notoriety through advertising. You may buy 1 PN for 3 gold.
Changing an opera title. You may change one of your opera titles for 5 gold (with the exception of the start of the game, when it is possible to do so for only 1 gold).

If a player runs out of gold, he may obtain 1 gold by sacrificing 1 PN. Of course, a PN value below zero is not possible.

Notoriety Points per Opera

To earn the notoriety needed for your climb to success you must stage the operas you were dealt at the start of the game.

The base cast for debuting an opera consists of 4 singers who can fill the following roles: 1 Principal role, 2 First parts, 1 Second part (the colours of the roles correspond to those on the hexagons of the singer cards). This guarantees a notoriety of 6 PN.

Some operas are exceptions, as shown in the following table:

Base Debuts and Operas with Special Casts

Opera	Principal Role	First Part	Second Part	Mute / Spoken Role
Base debut (+6 PN)
Standard opera	1	2	1
La serva padrona	2			1
Così fan tutte		4
Die Walküre	1	3

Each singer added to the base cast provides: +3 PN per Principal role, +2 PN per First part, +1 PN per Second part. Debuting the complete cast gives +6 PN plus the value shown in the hexagon of the opera card.

If you can fill more than the 4 roles required, the additional singers provide: +3 PN for each Principal role, +2 PN for each First part, +1 PN for each Second part.

On each opera card there is a number inside a blue hexagon: this is the bonus obtained (in addition to the base 6 PN) if you manage to debut the show with the full cast.

If an opera's PN fall below zero after it is staged (a fairly rare case), no negative notoriety is counted; the show simply gives 0 PN.

Obtaining Notoriety from Opponents' Shows

When we debut an opera, the two players whose turn comes after ours may complete the cast of our production with a singer of their own (only one each), obtaining:

+3 PN for a Principal role,
+2 PN for a First part,
+1 PN for a Second part.

It is not permitted to complete opponents' casts with combinations of singers and action cards that damage the PN of the production.

Minimum and Maximum Play Cards

At the start of the game, as already said, you receive 7 play cards (the minimum number you must always hold). On each turn you draw one new card without discarding any, until you hold 13 (the maximum number). From that point on, you must draw one card and discard one; the cards eliminated in this way must be placed in the discard pile so that they are visible to your opponents.

The exception to this rule is the Prime donne, who may be discarded even when the maximum number of cards has not been reached.

If your actions bring your number of cards below the minimum, on your next draw you take as many cards as you need to have 7 again.

Example: Player A holds 9 cards and debuts the opera Don Giovanni with the base cast (4 singers), and uses 2 cards to counter Unfair Competition, finishing the action with 3 cards in hand. On his next draw he takes 4 cards.

In summary:

minimum play cards: 7
maximum play cards: 13

Singer Types and Role Types

In Sipario! you have 5 types of singers to organise your theatre season and stage the most prestigious extra shows: Students, Debutants, Golden Throats, Great Interpreters, and Prime donne.

Students (Studenti): perhaps one day they will tread the great stages, but for the moment they are the least... how shall we put it? Least useful to the cause. On stage they can play the Mute or Spoken roles. But do not despair, because they can still take part in a class recital as explained in later chapters. Students have no vocal designation.

Debutants (Debuttanti): the great day has arrived, that of the debut. These singers have a specific vocal character: soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor and baritone. Baritone debutants may also play the Second parts intended for basses, and mezzo-soprano debutants may play those intended for contraltos.

Golden Throats (Ugole d'oro): established and reliable professionals, used to tackling every kind of stage, the Golden Throats are the most important and most versatile resource in the game. These singers are meant to play the roles defined as First part, but they may be used either as Second parts, at a cost of 2 gold, or as Principal roles (thanks to specific action cards). Golden Throats cover the whole vocal range: soprano, mezzo-soprano, contralto, tenor, baritone and bass.

Great Interpreters (Grandi interpreti): finally we enter the Olympus of singers. A Great Interpreter is the true beacon in the night for every impresario, a professional with great vocal gifts, an unshakeable technique and an incredible cold blood, the fruit of decades spent treading stages all over the world. These singers are meant to play the roles defined as Principal role, and under no circumstances may they be used in other parts. Great Interpreters sing even when struck by aphonia, they do not fall in love with colleagues because they are too focused on their task, they are too valuable to be booed, they study so hard that they never fluff a note, and they know no fear! They are therefore immune to the following action cards: Gust of Wind (Colpo di vento), Elopement (Fuga d'amore), Protest (Protesto), Clamorous Off-Key Note (Stecca clamorosa), and Stage Fright (Tremarella).

A Great Interpreter has a preferred vocal type, which divides them into: soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor and baritone. This distinction is only indicative, since a soprano Great Interpreter may take on the role of a mezzo-soprano (and vice versa), and a tenor Great Interpreter may take on the role of a baritone (and vice versa). Using a Great Interpreter in their preferred vocal type in an opera gives a bonus of +1 PN. Baritones may play roles intended for basses as their preferred vocal type.

Prime donne (Prime donne) are the most particular category of performers, since they provide important bonuses but demand a good deal of "sacrifice". For these reasons their use is recommended to players who are already familiar with the rules of Sipario!, and their description is placed in an appendix to this rulebook.

Role by Vocal Type

Singer	Principal Role	First Part	Second Part	Mute / Spoken Role
Prima donna	X
Great Interpreter	X
Golden Throat	C	X	O
Debutant		C	X
Student				X

X = can play this role | C = requires an action card | O = requires gold

Vocal Types

Voices are listed from highest to lowest. Female voices: Soprano (S), Mezzo-soprano (Ms), Contralto (C). Male voices: Tenor (T), Baritone (Br), Bass (B).

Prima donne are either female (soprano, mezzo-soprano, contralto) or male (tenor, baritone, bass). The printed table groups them under the headings "Femminili" (female) and "Maschili" (male).
Great Interpreters have a preferred vocal type, and using one in that type gives +1 PN. The printed table gives the preferred-type bonus under the headings "Femminili con vocalità preferita" (female, preferred type) and "Maschili con vocalità preferita" (male, preferred type).
Golden Throats are: S (soprano), Ms (mezzo-soprano), C (contralto), T (tenor), Br (baritone), B (bass).
Debutants are: S (soprano), Ms (mezzo-soprano; may also be used as a contralto debutant), T (tenor), Br (baritone; may also be used as a bass debutant).
Students have no vocal distinction. They play the Mute and Spoken roles (M - Rec.).

Actions per Turn

Each time it is your turn you may take one (and only one) of the following actions:

Draw one card from the play deck, or the card discarded by the player before you.
Draw several cards from the play deck (one of which may be the card discarded by the player before you), if you need to restore the minimum number of cards.
Draw one card and play an action card, such as Announced Flop, Paparazzo, Agency Wheeling-and-Dealing, etc.
Draw one card from the play deck and debut an opera or an extra show.
Skip your draw by playing an action card, such as Announced Flop, Paparazzo, Agency Wheeling-and-Dealing, etc.
Skip your draw by debuting an opera or an extra show.

The printed book notes that these last two options may seem unwise, but that "you will realise, as you become expert players, that they may prove very useful... of course I will not explain why!"

Unfair Competition

The day of the debut has arrived, and not only does the audience throng the foyer to take their seats on the soft velvet armchairs, or to settle among the boxes and galleries; the rival impresarios are also ready to unleash all the worst tricks to damage your production. Prepare for a battle without holding back, fought with action cards.

When a player debuts an opera, the two opponents whose turns come next after his have the right to one extra action with which to try to damage him.

See the summary diagram:

Player A debuts an opera. Players B and C may then each take one action of Unfair Competition (always following turn order), and Player A may defend himself twice (once for each attack received). Sabotage actions, as well as defensive actions, are carried out by playing a single action card (or a combination of cards, where provided).

In summary:

Player A debuts an opera.
Player B: action of Unfair Competition.
Player A: defensive action.
Player C: action of Unfair Competition.
Player A: defensive action.
End of Unfair Competition; normal turns resume from Player B.

Players B and C are not obliged to challenge Player A, and Player A is not obliged to defend himself (this normally happens when he has no useful action cards). If a player declines his turn of Unfair Competition, he also loses the chance to make defensive actions.

A defensive action does not necessarily have to counter the attack received; it may simply be an action that increases the PN of your own production.

Example: if one of your singers makes a Clamorous Off-Key Note and you do not have a Claque card to counter it directly, you may use a Sublime Aria on another singer in the cast to make up for the loss of PN caused by the bad note.

Extra Shows

Life is not all opera, and for this reason you may stage extra shows, using your singers in clever and alternative ways. These shows are not subject to Unfair Competition, and they earn you gold and PN.

The extra shows are:

Class recital (saggio di classe): months of study preparing arias and duets that one dreams of debuting in the theatre. For the moment, however, even a conservatoire classroom will do.
Master class: never stop studying. Master classes are the best way to test yourself, under the guidance of the best-known names of the opera world.
Recital: organising a fine evening of music with famous arias is the best way to win the favour of the public and raise some funds for the season in progress. A recital is a party in which to delight the audience, even the most demanding, with the best-known pieces of the repertoire.
Three Tenors concert (concerto dei tre tenori): the concert of the three tenors is part of tradition like no other event in the world, and for this very reason it must be organised in grand style!
New Year's concert (concerto di capodanno): we will not dwell too long on explaining what a New Year's concert is... certainly it is a much-awaited and high-impact moment, though organising it is not for everyone. This type of show is the only one that calls for the use of Prime donne. In this specific case, all the bonuses and maluses that characterise them are ignored, including their use costs.

The singers required to stage the extra shows, and the rewards, are as follows:

Extra show	Singers required	Gold reward
Class recital	3 or more students	1
Master class	1 Great Interpreter and 3 Debutants	2
Master class	1 Great Interpreter and 5 Debutants	3
Recital	4 Golden Throats with different vocal types	2
Recital	1 Great Interpreter and 3 Golden Throats	3

The printed table's column heading reads "Riconpensa" (sic); the misspelling is the book's own and is corrected here. The action card column is printed as the book has it; the card entries for the New Year's concert rows are printed alongside the first of those rows.

Special Debut Rules

We have already spoken about debuts; now let us look at some special situations you may come across:

Opening with a bang (stagione col botto): if you manage to debut an opera on your first turn, you receive the award "Opening with a bang", which gives a bonus of +5 PN. If more than one player achieves this, only the first receives the bonus, and the next must make do with a "Lightning start".
Lightning start (avvio lampo): if you manage to debut an opera by the third turn, you receive the award "Lightning start", which gives a bonus of +3 PN. Only the first player to debut by the third turn of the game receives the bonus.
Competition at home (concorrenza in casa): in certain game situations you may hold the cards, and above all feel the need, to debut two operas at once. In this case you suffer a penalty of -3 PN, because by staging two productions on the same evening you are competing with yourself! The positive side of this choice is that opposing impresarios may still make only one action of Unfair Competition each against you.
Substitution in progress (sostituzione in corso): Unfair Competition may force you to give up one of your singers. In this case, so as not to delay the staging of the show, you may decide to replace him. Hiring an artist at the last moment is not easy, since the new arrival may feel a mere stand-in... but, as they say, gold soothes everything. Replacing a Debutant costs 1 gold, a Golden Throat 2 gold, and a Great Interpreter 3 gold. The replaced singer returns to your hand, awaiting better times, unless he has been struck by Protest or Elopement.
Delaying the debut (ritardare il debutto): if you do not succeed in the manoeuvre of substitution in progress, you must delay the staging of the show. The opera is handled as if it had been debuted at the end of Unfair Competition, but the PN you obtain suffer a penalty of -2, and the impresario must pay 1 gold to notify the press of the postponement. If you do not have the gold required, you suffer a further penalty of .

Special Showcases

Staging titles that are coherent with one another is a point of merit, and it will give greater notoriety to the impresario clever enough to do it. Based on the notes on the opera cards, you may create the following special showcases:

Tribute showcase (Cartellone tributo): with three operas by the same author, you obtain +5 PN at the end of the game.
Stylish showcase (Cartellone stiloso): with three operas composed in the same century, you obtain +2 PN at the end of the game.
Zero-kilometre showcase (Cartellone a chilometri zero): with three operas whose first performance took place in the same city, you obtain +3 PN at the end of the game.
Popular trilogy (Trilogia popolare): by staging the three titles of Verdi's Popular Trilogy, namely Rigoletto, Trovatore and Traviata, you obtain +7 PN at the end of the game. The three operas have a different colour as the background of the title.
The Ring of the Nibelung (L'anello del Nibelungo): by staging three titles drawn from Wagner's tetralogy The Ring of the Nibelung, namely Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, you obtain +7 PN at the end of the game. The four operas have a different colour as the background of the title.

You may not add together the bonuses of different showcases; for example, staging the Popular Trilogy gives a bonus of 7 PN, and these bonuses are not added to one another, since the titles are by the same author and from the same century.

Summary of debuts and special showcases:

Debut or showcase	Requirement	Effect
Opening with a bang	Debut on the first turn	+5 PN
Lightning start	Debut by the third turn	+3 PN
Competition at home	Debut two of your own operas in the same hand	-3 PN
Delaying the debut	Caused by Unfair Competition	-2 PN / -1 gold
Date to be determined	Caused by Elopement and Protest	-50% PN*
Tribute showcase	Debut 3 operas by the same author	+5 PN
Stylish showcase	Debut 3 operas composed in the same century	+2 PN
Zero-kilometre showcase	Debut 3 operas performed in the same city

*Eliminate 50% (rounded down) of all PN deriving from the opera, including bonuses and maluses.

Seating Order

The seat you take at the start of your climb to the summit of operatic notoriety determines which players will carry out their strategies of Unfair Competition against you, and which players you will attack. Since we all know well that there are evenings when luck kisses some people but clamorously ignores others, the player who debuts the three operas dealt at the start of the game has the right to seat his opponents in different places for the next game. This allows him to set the more experienced players against one another, and at the same time to choose who his Unfair Competition opponents will be... the less experienced or the unluckier ones... provided fortune does not change direction!

Rules for 2 or 3 Players

To obtain the most balanced experience possible, the following adjustments must be made when playing a game with 2 or 3 players:

Singer cards and action cards: remove from the play deck 4 Great Interpreters (1 soprano, 2 mezzo-sopranos, 1 baritone), 2 Prime donne (drawn at random), 1 Twist of Fate card, and 1 Announced Flop card.
Action card Foyer gossip (Voci dal foyer): in three-player games, the player using Foyer gossip may draw from the discard pile both the last and the second-to-last card discarded by each opponent. In two-player games, the player using Foyer gossip may draw from the discard pile the last, second-to-last and third-to-last card discarded by the single opponent.
Unfair Competition: in two-player games, the single opponent has the right to two turns of Unfair Competition, followed by two defensive actions by the impresario under attack.
Obtaining notoriety from opponents' shows: in two-player games you may complete opponents' casts with 2 singers each.

Contents of the Box

40 opera cards
100 singer cards
60 action cards
1 joker card, "The Fool"
72 gold coins
5 score markers
20 blind-discard markers
1 short rulebook
1 Notoriety Board
1 rulebook

Action Card Details

Table of use of action cards and their combinations is given at the end of this rulebook; the entries below follow the printed chapter.

Sublime Aria (Aria sublime), positive: a moment of great inspiration to crown the most important point of one's performance. There are singers who would sell their soul to the devil to own this card in real life!

Sublime Aria played on one of your singers increases the PN of the show by 1 point. The singer must necessarily be a Golden Throat.

Special 1: Sublime Aria cancels Audience Roar (Boato del loggione).
Special 2: Sublime Aria played together with Claque increases the PN of the opera by 3 points without spending gold.

Audience Roar (Boato del loggione), negative: going to war and to love everything is permitted, and paying a few friends to disturb the triumphs of rivals is not such a reprehensible action... or perhaps it is?

Audience Roar reduces the PN of an opera by 1 point; if played together with 1 gold, the PN decrease by 2 points.

Special 1: Audience Roar cancels the effects of Claque.
Special 2: Audience Roar, using 2 gold, cancels the effects of Night of Grace (Serata di grazia).

Bomb of Cortisone (Bomba di cortisone), positive: desperate times call for desperate measures!

Bomb of Cortisone cancels the effects of Gust of Wind (Colpo di vento).

New Year's Eve (Capodanno), positive: 1st January: prestigious events and more expensive tickets!

New Year's Eve may be played together with an opera to obtain 2 gold from its staging, or it may be used to stage the extra show New Year's concert.

Claque, positive: thunderous applause. Perhaps a little too much... but no scandal, just a bit of organised cheering for our performers.

Claque increases the PN of the opera by 1 point; if played together with 1 gold, the PN increase by 2 points.

Special 1: Claque cancels the effects of Audience Roar.
Special 2: Claque, using 2 gold, cancels the effects of Clamorous Off-Key Note.

Twist of Fate (Colpo di scena), neutral: the inscrutable actions of artistic directors can sometimes lead to great "twists of fate"!

Swap one of your opera cards with an opponent's, hoping that this blind exchange will be entirely to your advantage.

Special: by spending 2 gold you may swap the titles of two opponent impresarios.

Gust of Wind (Colpo di vento), negative: one of the worst enemies of singers. It can lurk in the most unlikely places, and for the voice it is simply lethal!

With Gust of Wind you may eliminate an opponent's singer, causing a delay in the debut of the opera. A singer struck by Gust of Wind, if replaced, returns to the hand of the player who used it and will be available from the next turn.

Printed as "Coplo di vento" in the summary table of the book; corrected here to match the card name in the text.

Press Conference (Conferenza stampa), neutral: a grand press conference to present the playbills of the coming opera season!

Every player, including the one who plays this card, must show one of the opera titles that he drew at the start of the game. If there are several press conferences, different titles must be shown. The operas thus revealed must remain face up on the table for the rest of the game.

Special: a Press Conference may also be called to announce the delay of a debut, so as not to pay the 1 gold penalty.

En travesti (En travesti), positive: a change of costume, a change of sex!

With this card you may use a singer in a role of the opposite sex. En travesti causes no loss of PN if used for Second parts, while for First parts it inflicts a damage of -1 PN to the opera. As regards the effects on Principal roles, it may be used as an optional rule only on Great Interpreters. See the table in the chapter "Supplementary Rules".

Announced Flop (Flop annunciato), neutral: it is not always possible to hit the right title at the right moment for one's season.

Announced Flop allows you to eliminate an opera card from an opponent, who must then replace it with a new card drawn from the opera deck.

Elopement (Fuga d'amore), negative: the theatre is also the theatre of great and burning passions, and who better than the fascinating soprano to inflame the hearts of her colleagues?

Elopement forces the opponent to eliminate his infatuated singer (bass, baritone or tenor), causing, if not replaced, the opera to move to a date to be determined. The seduced and the seducer are discarded.

Special: Elopement may be used by a tenor Golden Throat together with Sublime Aria to eliminate an opponent's female singer (soprano, mezzo-soprano, contralto).

Grand Event (Grande evento), positive: publicising a show well, inviting prestigious guests, creating great expectations, are the best ways to ensure success!

Playing Grand Event together with the debut of an opera increases its PN by 2 points and gives 1 gold as a bonus from the box office; if it is used for an extra show instead (Recital and Three Tenors concert), you obtain 2 gold and 1 PN. The card Grand Event may not be used as a counter-move to Unfair Competition.

Grand Orchestra (Grande orchestra), positive: not only vocal cords! A grand orchestra can make a show even greater.

Playing Grand Orchestra together with the debut of an opera increases its PN by 1 point and gives 1 gold as a bonus from the box office; if it is used for an extra show instead (Recital and Three Tenors concert), you obtain 2 gold. The card Grand Orchestra may not be used as a counter-move to Unfair Competition.

The Pharmacist (Il farmacista), positive: in every production worth the name there is always a colleague who wanders about dispensing medical advice and peddling all the latest pharmaceutical discoveries.

The Pharmacist must be played together with a Golden Throat present in the cast of the opera you want to stage, and his presence renders all colleagues immune to the cards Gust of Wind and Viral Infection! Of course, eliminating The Pharmacist also eliminates the bonuses linked to him.

Special 1: The Pharmacist may be played as a counter-move to Unfair Competition to cure a single colleague struck by Gust of Wind or Stage Fright.
Special 2: The Pharmacist may be played as a counter-move to Unfair Competition to cure the Grand Orchestra from Viral Infection!

Agency Wheeling-and-Dealing (Magheggio d'agenzia), neutral: impresarios know that the basis of a good strategy for sabotaging other people's shows is the ability to lift singers and possible initiatives from opponents.

The player using Agency Wheeling-and-Dealing may swap one of his play cards with an opponent's, with the flourish of knowing what he gives up but not what he gets! Agency Wheeling-and-Dealing also works for Prime donne, provided that one's own Prima donna is swapped for another Prima donna.

Nerves of Steel (Nervi d'acciaio), positive: anyone who thinks this is a relaxing job has never felt the density of the air just before the fateful "Sipario!" (curtain).

Nerves of Steel allows you to use a Debutant in a First part, or a Golden Throat in a Principal role, causing in this case a loss of quality of -1 PN.

Special: Nerves of Steel cancels the effects of Stage Fright and Elopement (in the latter case the seducing singer will still be discarded).

Paparazzo (Paparazzo), neutral: do not hesitate to hire this individual: a furtive snap caught behind the scenes can reveal your opponents' plans and secret strategies. With a simple "click" you may thus obtain enormous advantages!

Paparazzo allows you to spy on 2 opponent play cards; these cards may belong to one opponent or to two distinct ones. Having done this, you may decide whether to make these secrets visible to everyone or to keep the information to yourself; in the first case the cards are placed on the table "face up", in the second they are placed on the table "face down", so as to be always identifiable by whoever played Paparazzo.

Special 1: by spending 1 gold you may reveal 3 opponent play cards.
Special 2: by spending 2 gold you may reveal 1 opponent opera card.

Protest (Protesto), negative: to err is human... persevering can only ensure that you are booed!

Protest allows you to eliminate an opponent's Debutant or Golden Throat, causing, if not replaced, the opera to slip to a date to be determined. The protested singer is discarded.

Special 1: played together with Clamorous Off-Key Note, it eliminates a Great Interpreter.
Special 2: played together with Clamorous Off-Key Note and Audience Roar, it eliminates a Prima donna.

Recommendation of Iron (Raccomandazione di ferro), positive: a fixed stare, a determined step, unashamed haughtiness and no sign of fear... there is no doubt that you have run into an iron-clad recommended person!

Recommendation of Iron allows a Debutant to play a First part with a penalty of -1 PN, or a Golden Throat to play a Principal role with a penalty of -2 PN. A recommended singer may not be protested.

Special: Recommendation of Iron cancels the Protest card.

Stagehands' Strike (Sciopero delle maestranze), negative: arms folded: no sets, costumes, lights, props... the theatre is closed until the strike ends.

Stagehands' Strike causes an opponent to lose a turn.

Special: Stagehands' Strike may be used together with the debut of one of your own operas to block the Unfair Competition actions of one of your opponents.

Night of Grace (Serata di grazia), positive: there are evenings when everything works perfectly! And how could one not take advantage of them?

Night of Grace allows a singer to perform roles that would normally be beyond his reach; a Debutant may be used in a First part, or a Golden Throat in a Principal role.

Special 1: Night of Grace played together with Sublime Aria, in addition to improving the performance of your own singer, increases the quality of the opera by +2 PN.
Special 2: Night of Grace may be applied to a Great Interpreter in extra shows and allows you to obtain 2 additional gold.

Clamorous Off-Key Note (Stecca clamorosa), negative: one is not always in dazzling form... and this is one of the most feared "mishaps" by every singer.

Clamorous Off-Key Note worsens the performance of a First part, causing a damage of -1 PN. This card may also be applied to a Principal role, provided that it is played by a Golden Throat; in this case the loss of PN is -2.

Special 1: Clamorous Off-Key Note cancels the effects of Sublime Aria.
Special 2: Clamorous Off-Key Note may be played together with Audience Roar to worsen the quality of the show by -3 PN (-4 PN in the case of Golden Throats used as Principal roles).

Stage Fright (Tremarella), negative: cold sweats, shortness of breath, memory lapses. Relax, it is all normal: you are singers! But if you lose even that minimum of lucidity, you will have a real attack of stage fright.

Stage Fright forces an opponent to withdraw from the stage the singer who falls victim to it, causing, if not replaced, a delay in the debut.

Special: played together with Clamorous Off-Key Note, it is equivalent to the card Protest.

Viral Infection! (Virus intestinale), negative: there is always a colleague who, out of excess heroism, falls ill with viral ailments, and the result is almost always a deadly epidemic!

Viral Infection! worsens the quality of the opera by -2 PN.

Special: Viral Infection! cancels the effects of Grand Orchestra.

Foyer Gossip (Voci dal foyer), neutral: the foyer of the theatre, melting pot and crossroads of all curiosities and gossip; how to resist the temptation to listen to a little of it?

Foyer Gossip allows you to draw from the discard pile the last card discarded by each opponent. If you need to restore the minimum number of cards, for example after a debut, you may decide how many to take from the opponents' discards and how many from the pile.

Supplementary Rules

En travesti for Great Interpreters

Below is the summary table of the effects of the action card En travesti in relation to the preferred vocal types of Great Interpreters. Rows give the role played; columns give the Great Interpreter's preferred role.

Role played	Preferred: Soprano	Preferred: Mezzo-soprano	Preferred: Tenor	Preferred: Baritone / Bass
Soprano	+1	0	-1*	-2*
Mezzo-soprano	0	+1	-2*	-1*
Tenor	-1*	-2*	+1	0
Baritone / Bass	-2*	-1*	0	+1

* Only when using the action card En travesti.

This table may also be used for Golden Throats En travesti who play Principal roles, but in this case the values above must be made worse by a further -2 PN.

Prime donne

Prime donne are the bane and the delight of every impresario: true personalities of the opera world, known to the wider public for their undoubted singing gifts, but above all for their off-stage eccentricities. Having this type of singer in your ranks guarantees a sure media echo that will increase your notoriety, but also the obligation to satisfy their every whim!

Prime donne play only Principal roles; it would be unthinkable to use them otherwise. The action card En travesti may not be applied to them, since they would never agree to show themselves other than at their greatest splendour! Prime donne are so convinced of themselves that they are not subject to the effects of Elopement, because it is other singers who fall in love with them and not the reverse. Their charisma is such that even if the debut of the show is moved, the audience will turn up the following day with nothing to object to. No impresario would have the courage to protest them, and above all they do not make a clamorous off-key note; they re-interpret! In short, these singers are immune to the cards En travesti, Elopement, Protest and Clamorous Off-Key Note, and, above all, if the debut of the show is delayed, this will happen with only a -1 PN penalty.

From the point of view of voice, Prime donne are divided only into male and female.

So that they can always be recognised by everyone, these cards have a back of a different colour from the others, since from the moment you draw a Prima donna the first opera you must stage must feature her as the protagonist. Using a Prima donna has a use cost, and also a cost if you wish to discard her; in that event the card goes to the exceptions pile and remains face down.

You may not hold two Prime donne at the same time. If you are obliged to do so, you must eliminate one (even if you have not yet reached the maximum of 13 cards), paying 2 gold more than the discard cost printed on the card. If you do not have enough gold and are forced to debut an opera, the PN benefits of the Prima donna are reduced to zero and the show suffers a penalty of -1 PN. If you then also intend to use both Prime donne in the same performance, in addition to obtaining no PN benefits you will suffer a penalty of -3. If during the initial dealing phase a player should receive two Prime donne, the dealer hands this second card to the first player who does not already have one.

The six Prime donne are:

L'amica dell'amico (The friend of a friend): exchanges of favours are the order of the day in the gilded world of opera, and having an account open with a Prima donna can prove a double-edged sword. The friend of a friend, as well as providing a bonus of +2 PN, carries a debt of gratitude (which we will not investigate further...) with an opposing impresario, and so may decide, when she debuts, to call in that debt by preventing him from making any action of Unfair Competition.
La battagliera (The battler): no going home without success! This singer is a true monolith of determination, and once she has decided that a debut must happen, nothing can stop it. The battler cancels every penalty for delayed debuts, has enough strength of spirit to counter the effects of Stage Fright for the whole cast, and has such charm that Elopement is impossible. If a singer is struck by Gust of Wind or suffers a Protest, she may still perform, causing a loss of -1 PN.
La capricciosa (The capricious one): the true queen of tantrums and absurd demands, irascible and fickle, she will not accept having colleagues who might steal even the slightest part of the stage. To please her you must make sure the rest of the cast is made up only of Debutants (or Golden Throats paired with the card Clamorous Off-Key Note); it is up to you to work out how to satisfy her! If however you succeed in the enterprise, success is guaranteed by an increase of +5 PN, without needing to spend gold to use her.
L'ansioso (The anxious one): being exceptional performers does not mean being sheltered from the anxieties that afflict almost all singers; some learn to live with these emotions and others, unperturbed, will keep agitating as if it were the first time they tread a stage. The anxious one is a singer of great gifts but very taut nerves; every time he goes on stage he confers a PN bonus of +2, but he demands to have a cover (or substitute) Golden Throat, with the same vocal type as himself, and a Debutant, of the same type, to be psychologically harassed and on whom to discharge all his anxieties. Using the anxious one costs no gold.
(The immense one): enormous voice but enormous appetite. The immense one sings superbly but also eats a great deal, both before and after the performances, to the delight of the restaurateurs near the theatre! His presence in the cast is a guarantee of success and is equivalent to the use of the card Grand Event (without the related gold bonus). This singer therefore brings an increase of , to which the of Grand Event is added. Using the immense one, however, will cost the impresario , and he must pay if he wishes to discard him.

In summary:

Prima donna	PN	Use cost	Discard cost
L'amica dell'amico	+2 PN	1 gold	2 gold
La battagliera	+2 PN	1 gold	2 gold
La capricciosa	+5 PN	0 gold	2 gold
L'ansioso	+2 PN	0 gold	2 gold
L'immenso	+3 PN	5 gold	3 gold
L'istrione	+2 PN	1 gold	2 gold

Last-Hour Offer (Offerta dell'ultima ora)

As already widely seen, the debut of an opera may have to be delayed or postponed, with disastrous consequences. The impresario who risks the postponement of the staging of his show may at this point make a Last-Hour Offer to avoid it. This consists of offering singers, action cards, gold and blind-discard markers in exchange for the artist to be replaced. It will then be up to the opponents to decide whether the offer is sufficiently to their advantage.

The Last-Hour Offer is open to all impresarios (not only to those involved in Unfair Competition), who may in turn make one (and only one) counter-offer, such as a larger number of gold or a different singer.

Example: Player A debuts Il barbiere di Siviglia and loses Don Bartolo because of a Gust of Wind played by Player B in Unfair Competition. If Player A has no way to counter this action (for example with a Bomb of Cortisone), the debut of the show slips. However, if the sly Player B holds the baritone Golden Throat that would avoid the delay of the debut, he may carry out his move by giving A his own singer at the price of 2 gold, sparing him the penalties from the postponement of the staging.

The impresario who is the victim of this action is nonetheless free to refuse the move, using one of his own singers as a substitute, or by delaying the debut, but he may not make a Last-Hour Offer.

The Infingardo's Manoeuvre (Mossa dell'infingardo)

The perfidy of impresarios can reach unspeakable heights, and you may run into the formidable Infingardo's Manoeuvre (the "sly one's" move).

During your turn of Unfair Competition it is frequently possible to put an opposing singer out of play, thus causing the postponement of his show. The action described in this chapter, however, provides that the impresario who caused this loss (or the other one involved in Unfair Competition) has the possibility of substituting the singer just eliminated. In this case the opera goes on stage normally, but the victim of the Infingardo's Manoeuvre must pay this master of strategies according to what he has received from him: 1 gold for a Debutant, 2 gold for a Golden Throat, 3 gold for a Great Interpreter. The Infingardo also keeps the possibility of completing the opponent's cast with another of his own artists, as usual.

Team Play (Sipario a squadre)

In games with four participants you may decide to play in pairs.

Arrange yourselves so that members of the same team sit facing one another. Each team has a single marker to place on the Notoriety Board. Each pair may create a special showcase using the six opera cards at its disposal (the operas debuted still count).

The impresario who stages a show will suffer Unfair Competition from the members of the opposing team, and may be helped by his team-mate, who has the chance to take his place in one or both of the counter-moves.

A single game ends when one player debuts all three of his titles.

Appendix: Table of Action Cards and Their Combinations

The printed summary table (pages 21 and 32 of the book) lists each action card with its effect, the cards it combines with, the cards it cancels, and whether it can be used multiple times, in extra shows, and in Unfair Competition. The footnote markers "*" (under "Multiple use") and "**" (under "Extra shows") appear in the table, but the book gives no separate explanation for them; they are reproduced here as printed.

Card	Effect	Combination	Cancels	Multiple use*	Extra shows**	Unfair Competition
Sublime Aria	Positive	Claque, Elopement, Night of Grace	Audience Roar	Yes	Yes	Yes
Audience Roar	Negative	Protest, Clamorous Off-Key Note	Claque, Night of Grace	No	No	Yes
Bomb of Cortisone	Positive		Gust of Wind	Yes	No	Yes
New Year's Eve

*Printed as "Utilizzo Multiplo". **Printed as "Spettacoli Extra".

The printed table also gives the card "Coplo di vento" (sic) for Gust of Wind; it is transcribed here under the correct card name.

Note on combinations: the book states that combinations of action cards may be cancelled by eliminating the effect of one of the cards that make them up.