IL TURCO IN ITALIA - Maria Callas 1955 (Complete Opera Rossini)

1814~2014 Rossini was just 22 when he wrote Il Turco in Italia, and clearly relished librettist Felice Romani’s outrageous farce. 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, and in Luchino Visconti’s La Scala production, which starred Maria Callas as the incorrigible Fiorilla. The production’s triumph s