I/11

L'Italiana in Algeri

[The Italian Girl in Algiers]

Dramma giocoso per musica in two acts by
ANGELO ANELLI

First performance:
Venice – Teatro San Benedetto
22 May 1813

Critical Edition by
AZIO CORGHI

FONDAZIONE ROSSINI PESARO 1981

CHARACTERS:
MUSTAFÀ, Bey of Algiers, bass-baritone
ELVIRA, Mustafà's wife, soprano
ZULMA, a slave girl, confidante of Elvira, mezzo-soprano
HALY, Captain of the Algerian pirates, bass
LINDORO, a young Italian, Mustafà's favorite slave, tenor
ISABELLA, an Italian lady, contralto
TADDEO, Isabella's companion, bass-baritone
Male chorus of eunuchs of the harem, Algerian pirates, Italian slaves, Pappataci
Women of the harem, European slaves, sailors, silent

The scene is set in Algiers

Instrumentation: 1 Flute/2 Piccolos, 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 1 Bassoon, 2 Horns, 2 Trumpets, Bass Drum and Banda turca, Catuba (perc. instrument), Strings, Continuo
Performance time: 2h 15m

Within the bubbling score of this opera, whose timeless theme of the liberation of a woman abducted by a tyrant also has echoes of Italian nationalism, the scenes range from the sentimental to the lunatic. Rossini overlaps elements of the two genres of opera seria and opera buffa to present noble feelings within the comic frame.

L'Italiana in Algeri is a work which has never completely disappeared from the repertory, accumulating inaccuracies and inauthentic traditions on top of the changes made by Rossini himself. The critical edition corrects these distortions, reconstructing the various versions of the work and providing all the music prepared by Rossini for the opera at its first performance, as well as the revisions he made for Vicenza, Milan, and Naples.

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