IL TURCO IN ITALIA Rossini – Festival d’Aix-en-Provence

In the bright sunlight of opera buffa, a handsome Turkish prince (with an agile bass voice) lands on the coast of Naples looking for amorous adventures. In no time at all he meets a vivacious Italian girl (a coquettish virtuoso soprano), who is accustomed to flitting between admirers, much to the displeasure of her elderly husband. This little group carries on its flirtations, rivalries and quarrels under the delighted eyes of the poet Prosdocimo, who, as it happens, has been seeking inspiration for a dramma buffo. Il turco in Italia shows composer Gioacchino Rossini at his funniest and also his most subtle. He responds to the buffoonery of the plot with an inspired and constantly amusing score. Il turco in Italia is largely an ensemble opera with only Fiorella - she of the coquettish passion for men - having an important series of solo arias. Amidst the madcap antics, Rossini steps back, for dramatic or musical reasons, to create moments of extraordinary beauty and sensitivity. This production from th