L'italiana in Algeri

Premiered when Rossini was just 21, L’italiana in Algeri (The Italian Girl in Algiers, 1813) is the composer’s coming-of-age. It was the first full-length, two-act comic opera he would write, but there’s no timidity or hesitation in a score that explodes with assurance and invention. Take the "Overture"; the unexpectedly lyrical, intimate opening with its solo oboe suddenly swept away by high-speed strings and fortissimo orchestral interjections—this is musical comedy that delights in taking its audience unawares. The opera’s setting plays to the 19th-century fashion for all things worldly (especially Ottoman) and also adds a stirring rescue drama into the mix. We follow the fortunes of Isabella, whose lover Lindoro has been captured and imprisoned by Mustafà, the Bey of Algiers. Joining forces with Mustafà’s rejected wife Elvira, Isabella plots to infiltrate the Bey’s harem, free her lover and reunite the couple. Like Mozart’s Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Rossini’s Isabella is a character who seems to have strayed into this sparkling comedy from a serious opera: an assertive heroine who turns the traditional rescue genre on its head. No one could hear her stirring first aria “Cruda sorte” and doubt either her strength or ultimate success. At the other emotional extreme are extended finales that delight in layering line upon line in a swelling crescendo of impact. Add to this plenty of tongue-twisting wordplay, and you have an irresistible comic opera.