A tangled WEB
Rossini’s classic ‘The Italian Girl in Algiers’ is full of complicated relationships
Giochino Rossini explored the comic possibilities of the relationship between the European and Middle Eastern cultures.
The result is one of his finest and funniest comedies.
“The Italian Girl in Algiers” is set to music of enormous vitality.
The opera is sung in Italian, and is translated into English and Spanish on the translation screens.
The libretto is by Angelo Anelli. It begins with Elvira, who complains to Zulma that her husband, Mustafà, is no longer in love with her.
Mustafà rejects Elvira’s attempts to rekindle his ardor. He orders Ali, his henchman, to have Elvira married off to Lindoro, a recently captured slave, and to find a lusty young Italian woman to be his new wife.
Lindoro pines for Isabella, whom he has not seen for many months. Mustafà offers him a wife who combines beauty, wealth and kindness, but will not divulge her name.
Searching for Lindoro, Isabella and her traveling companion Taddeo are forced by a storm to seek refuge in Algiers. They are captured by Mustafà’s men. Ali discovers that Isabella is a genuine Italian woman and predicts that she will become the new star of the harem, much to Taddeo’s jealousy.
Lindoro agrees to marry Elvira in exchange for his freedom and passage to Italy, just as Ali announces the arrival of the Italian girl and her “uncle” Taddeo. Mustafà falls immediately in love with Isabella and orders that the inconvenient uncle be impaled on the stake forthwith. Persuaded by Isabella’s charms, Mustafà agrees to make Lindoro her personal slave and to commute Taddeo’s execution.
The Santa Fe Opera’s pop-up book production of “The Italian Girl in Algiers” has been just as popular as the opera itself.
Since its 2002 premiere, the production has been winging its way around the continent from San Francisco, Calgary and St. Paul to Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Kansas City and many places between.
The SFO’s “Italian Girl” has been updated to the early 20th century with a heroine who is a clever aviatrix, ready to save the day.