Rossini's appearance on Italian stages was not a breath of fresh air, it was a real tornado. If we compare any comic opera by the young Rossini with those, even among the best, of his finest predecessors, like Paisiello and Cimarosa, the first thing we notice is the marked change of rhythm that Rossini applies to the event he is setting, whatever it may be. All this can be seen most clearly in one of Rossini's greatest comic masterpieces, L'italiana in Algeri, an opera which Rossini wrote for the San Benedetto theatre in Venice, staged on 22nd May 1813. L'italiana in Algeri was immediately greeted with triumphant receptions, nor indeed could it have failed to be, given the absolutely dazzling musical quality of the score.

With the collaboration of Naxos