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| Arts Calendar / November 13 / Opera |
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Opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini. 150 min (with one interval). Libretto by Felice Romani. Music Director: Gennady Rozhdestvensky. Stage Director: Olga Ivanova. Conductor and Chorus Master: Alexey Vereshchagin. Sung in Italian. Rossini was just 22 when he wrote Il turco in Italia, his 13th opera and his third for La Scala, Milan. The young composer clearly relished librettist Felice Romani's outrageous farce, which serves up brazen ridiculousness with cynical delight. But the heroine's wildly immoral antics caused some consternation at the opera's premiere on 14 August 1814, and would play a part in Il turco's virtual disappearance from Europe's stages later in the century. The opera wasn't seen again until 1950, in Luchino Visconti's La Scala production, which starred Maria Callas as the incorrigible Fiorilla. The production's triumph secured the opera's position as one of Rossini's most complex and uproarious comedies. Insatiable flirt Fiorilla is bored to death of her husband Geronio. When she encounters the dashing Turk Selim she decides to fall in love – much to the chagrin of her current toy boy, Narciso. The poet Prosdocimo watches their antics keenly. At a masked ball everyone gets very confused over who is who. Eventually Selim pairs off with old flame Zaida. Fiorilla is cast out by Geronio and, perhaps for the first time in her life, rues her bad behaviour – but forgiveness is just around the corner. Boris Pokrovsky Chamber Stage |
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