Rossini L’italiana in Algeri

The delightful opera L’italiana in Algeri, allegedly written within less than a month before its first performance in Venice in 1813, is a beautiful specimen of the popular comedies of its age. It contains stock characters and slapstick situations similar to those that we know, for instance, from Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia.  

But this time, there is the additional appeal of an imaginary Algiers, the exotic setting which Rossini used as an excuse for boisterous jokes and special percussive effects in the orchestral accompaniment. 

The main characters are Mustafà, tired of his wife Elvira and obsessed with finding a sensual Italian girl for himself, and Isabella, who arrives from Livorno, accompanied by an elderly suitor, Taddeo, to save her fiancé Lindoro, who is in his turn kept as a slave at Mustafà’s court. 

From the perspective of Mustafà, who gets mocked and punished for his behaviour, we learn about the difficulties of loving across cultural boundaries, and that reality rarely corresponds with our fantasy. Taddeo, on the other hand, must realise that an elderly man is often the victim of self-delusion. It is totally understandable, however, that he falls for the feisty, intelligent Isabella and, like our audience, even more for the charming Italian lady embodying her.