L'italiana in Algeri
- Mustafa Bey of Algiers ( bass)
- Elvira, his wife (Soprano)
- Zulma, slave and confidante Elvira (soprano )
- Haly, Corsair (bass - baritone)
- Lindoro, Italians and favorite slave Mustafa (Tenor)
- Isabella, Italian ( coloratura alto)
- Taddeo, Isabella's companion, cicisbeo ( basso buffo )
- Eunuchs, slaves, Italians, " Pappataci " ( male chorus )
L' Italiana in Algeri is an opera buffa in 2 acts. The libretto is by Angelo Anelli, the music of Gioachino Rossini. The first performance was on 22 May 1813 at the Teatro di San Benedetto, Venice.
Action
Algiers, circa 1810
Act I
Mustafa, the Bey of Algiers, his wife Elvira is tired. His confidant Haly is intended to supply him a sultry Italian girl and marry Elvira with his Italian slave Lindoro. This had fallen before his capture in Isabella and deviates from the offer Halys and Mustafa.
Isabella has now done with Taddeo on the search for Lindoro, their ship ran aground off the coast of Algeria, however. Haly seizes the opportunity to fulfill the desire of his master. Taddeo succeeds to stay with Isabella because he pretends to be her uncle.
To loszuwerben Elvira, Mustafa Lindoro promises to let him leave for Italy when he takes to wife Elvira. To note he and Elvira consent.
Isabella arrives at the court of the Bey, who is immediately smitten with her. Lindoro is added with Elvira, to say goodbye. Presence of mind asks Isabella, Mustafa, Lindoro and Elvira to keep in Algiers, when he I value her favor. General confusion.
Second Act
Mustafa is Isabella now expire completely. The still loves Lindoro, who can easily convince himself that he is still loyal to her. They decide to flee. To take Isabella for himself, Mustafa appoint its "uncle" Taddeo for Kaimakan (alternate).
Mustafa, Taddeo and Lindoro watch Isabella, who wants to make nice for your loved one, secretly in the toilet. Each of the three imagines that he is meant. Mustafa Lindoro to send Isabella to pick them and instructed Taddeo to leave him alone with Isabella when he sneezes. Isabella has now cunningly invited Elvira for coffee. From the tête-à- tête of Mustafa and Isabella is also why nothing because Taddeo refuses to go.
Isabella Mustafa promises to love him, if he let himself (ie fool ) to make Pappataci. That was not hard to find a Pappataci have nothing to do but eat, drink and sleep.
In gratitude for appointment as Pappataci Mustafa leaves free all Italian slaves. He must swear to eat at the ceremony for inclusion in the state of Pappataci a rich meal and paying attention to anything that is happening around him. Taddeo as Kaimakan it must do the same. The use Isabella, Lindoro and the other Italians to flee. Too late Mustafa recognizes the dizziness and adds to his fate.
Origin of the substance
As a textbook Anelli has been chosen in 1808 set to music by Luigi Mosca Italian Girl in Algiers, a substance that the first wave of enthusiasm for the Orient (especially for North Africa) in the late 18th and early 19th centuries reflected (see here The Abduction from the Seraglio by Mozart), which had been initiated mainly by the Egyptian expedition of Napoleon. A little later, in 1805, the propaganda motivated free purchases of Italian prisoners by Jérôme Bonaparte drew the interest of the Europeans on behalf of his brother Napoleon again to the Barbary States, whose main source of income was the piracy.
The plot is on the real history of the Milanese Frapolli Antonietta, Antonietta married Suini go back. Your exact survival data are not yet determined. She gained fame in 1808 when she was able to return from the captivity of the Bey of Algiers over Venice in her hometown. She's probably been captured with other compatriots 1805 in the waters between Sardinia and Sicily from North African corsairs and taken to the court of the Bey of Algiers. Under unexplained circumstances, but probably without the payment of a ransom, they came free in 1808, allegedly with the help of the first wife of the Bey, who looked vulnerable in the harem its leading position. Perhaps this was also simply the change of ruler of Mustafa Ibn Ibrahim Ahmed Ibn Ali (1808 ) the reason for their release (see the list of Ottoman Bey of Algiers ).
Richard Osborne suggested, however, that for the self-conscious Isabella Suleiman I. fourth wife Roxelane the model could have given.
Formation and Music
After the premiere of Rossini Tancredi in Ferrara returned mid- April 1813 back to Venice. Because Coccias Carlo opera La donna selvaggia should not be on time, asked the impresario Cesare Gallo Rossini, to deliver him up to the end of May a new opera.
The 21 -year-old Rossini still managed to compose the opera within four weeks of new and rehearse. He does not even handle back on numbers from earlier operas; only Halys small aria Le femmine d' Italia and possibly some more passages from the end of Act 2 come ( most likely) from the pen of another composer. On May 22, 1813, the new opera had its triumphant premiere in Venice.
The opera is Rossini's first full-length opera buffa. In it he succeeds, if not the connection, yet the exciting interplay of capricious and often sarcastic joke and lyrically delicate sensibility. The oscillation between these two poles embodies Isabella, one of the most original female characters in the opera this time, and a starring role for each coloratura contralto. It was designed in the premiere of Maria Marcolini. Even later Rossini created quite a few roles for these otherwise rare voice type (eg, Rosina in The Barber of Seville and La Cenerentola ).
A generally viewed as exemplary production in oriental fairytale stage design is by Jean -Pierre Ponnelle under the baton of Claudio Abbado at the Vienna State Opera ( Premiere: September 28, 1987). The film stars sang Ruggero Raimondi and Agnes Baltsa. The production was due to their wit and precise musical interpretation of a classic, which led to the assumption by many opera houses (such as the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and Cologne Opera ).