L'Italiana in Algeri

Composer: Rossini, Gioachino

Librettist/Text Author: Anelli, Angelo

Orchestra: Bologna Teatro Comunale Orchestra

Chorus: Prague Chamber Chorus

Chorus Master: Matl, Lubomir

Elvira: Bargnesi, Barbara

Haly: Esposito, Alex

Isabella: Pizzolato, Marianna

Lindoro: Mironov, Maxim

Mustafa: Vinco, Marco

Taddeo: Simone, Bruno de

Zulma: Monaco, Jose Maria Lo

Set Designer: Fo, Dario

Costume Designer: Fo, Dario

Lighting Designer: Franco, Marri

Stage Director: Fo, Dario

Television Director: Mancini, Tiziano

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Festival: Rossini Opera Festival

Venue: BPA Palas, Pesaro

Playing Time: 02:30:58

Catalogue Number: 33526

UPC: 8007144335267

Synopsis

L'Italiana in Algeri

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When the 21-year-old Gioachino Rossini wrote his L'Italiana in Algeri (The Italian Girl in Algiers) for Venice in 1813 he had already made his debut as an opera composer two and a half years earlier, yet this was his tenth opera-a quarter of all the operas which he was to write up to 1829.

The opera portrays the adventures of the astute Isabella, Italian prisoner of the sultan Mustapha, who has wearied of his docile, submissive wives and seeks a new wife who can stand up to him: in this Isabella succeeds all to well, wrapping the sultan around here finger and then reducing him to despair as she finally returns to Italy with her beloved Lindoro and suitor Taddeo. Alongside the dizzying speeds of its action, the opera contains an element that is wholly new for the Italian stages of the day: pervasive, at times even explicit, sexual allusion, starting with Isabella's aria Cruel lot, tyrannous love (All men want it/all men ask for it/happiness/from a fair woman).