ROSSINI - Il turco in Italia
Born on 29 February 1792 in Pesaro, Gioachino Rossini was destined to become the most popular Italian composer of the first half of the 19th century. By the time his last opera, Guillaume Tell, received its premiere in August 1829 he had composed no less than 40 operas, from the tragic and historic to the comic and even farcical, over the previous 20 years. The story of Il Turco in Italia has an echo of his earlier Italiana in Algeri, and the Milanese audience, suspicious that Rossini was borrowing from himself, gave it a poor reception at the premiere. In fact musically the opera is totally new and its score, allied with a sophisticated and deftly handled plot, places it among Rossini’s greatest comic operas. This recording was made in 1954 during the second year of Maria Callas’s association with the Gramophone Company. She is joined by some great singers of Italian opera, including Nicola Rossi-Lemeni, Franco Calabrese and the 29-year-old Nicolai Gedda; Gianandrea Gavazzeni conducts the Chorus and Orchestra of La Scala, Milan.

0946 3 58662 2 3 (2CDs)
0946 3 58662 5 4 (Digital Download)