Opera "Italian in Algeria": content, video, interesting facts, history

D. Rossini opera "Italian in Algeria"

At the age of 21, Gioacchino Rossini wrote the opera, which became the enchanting beginning of his dizzying career as a leading composer of Italian opera houses. Created in the buff genre, "Italian in Algeria" has become a vivid embodiment of innovation and avant-garde. Rossini He showed incredible audacity, embodying the features of comedy, drama and political protest in the new creation, generously adding insane eclecticism to a surrealistic farce. Without knowing it, the composer "chained" into the score a reflection of his own character, of a bold character, in which elegant humor bordered on defiant sarcasm, and patriotism - ridicule over the existing system.

Summary of the Opera Rossini "Italian in Algeria"and many interesting facts about this work read on our page.

Summary "Italians in Algeria"

In the chambers of the Ottoman governor in Algeria a drama is played out: Mustafa lost interest in his wife Elvira and is about to get a new concubine, a beautiful girl from Italy. The unloved matrimony ruler intends to give his slave Lindoro. In return for agreement, Day promises to grant freedom to the prisoner and send him along with his new companion on the ship back to Italy. Elvira is extremely saddened by the mood of her spouse, she complains to the maid and dreams that the unfaithful husband will return to her arms again. At this time, the pirate Ali, who is close to the ruler, is assigned to deliver an Italian woman to the palace.

Isabella sets sail to the shores of Algeria to rescue her lover, Lindoro, from captivity. Isabella is accompanied by Taddeo, a faithful assistant. Suddenly a storm is raging in the sea. The ship is broken on the rocks off the Algerian coast. Miraculously, the surviving Italian and her ally are captured corsairs. Ali is pleased: the stranger is ideally suited to the description of the concubine that Day wanted to see.

Isabella and Taddeo are led to the palace. Mustafa is captivated by the beauty of the guest and is going to fulfill all her whims, so that she would belong to him. Sly Isabella, seeing that Mustafa is fascinated by her, instantly comes up with a desperate plan. At the upcoming ceremony Mustafa should be pappatachi. Such a title, according to a stranger, is given to only selected men who deserve the favor of a beautiful lady. Under the cunning plan, Mustafa and his closest warriors should drink, eat and keep strictly silent. Stupid Day is performing an errand. At this time, Isabella meets with Lindoro and persuades all the captive Italians who are ordered to attend the ceremony, to run with them on a European ship the next night.

When, having come to his senses from drunkenness, Mustafa realizes what the tricky idea of ​​the Italian was, he becomes enraged. The ruler calls on the warriors to pursue the fugitives, but everyone around is drunk and cannot follow orders. Having calmed down a bit, Mustafa returns to Elvira with the intention to reunite their union and never again deal with Italian women.

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Interesting Facts

• There are two versions regarding the binding of the content of "Italians in Algeria" to real historical events. According to one of them, the prototype of Isabella is Italian Antonetta Frapollo, who was kidnapped at the beginning of the XIX century and brought to Algeria as a gift for the ruler Mustafa ben Ibrahim. According to an alternative version, the plot goes back to more ancient events that took place in the 16th century: a foreign concubine organized a conspiracy against the sultan. With the help of flattery, seduction and women's charms, she condemned to death the loyal subjects of the ruler and even his son, and then - managed to escape punishment. Given the lack of objective evidence of commitment Rossini to historical accuracy and the fact that the action in the opera takes place in the XVIII century, both versions are in the status of unfounded hypotheses.
• The overture conceals a surprise that Rossini purposely prepared for the listeners, obeying the creative influence Joseph Haydn. The Italian composer was delighted with the symphony No. 94 and was in awe of the musical reception that the Austrian creator used to create an unexpected acoustic effect. "At this point, the ladies will scream," predicted the "father of the symphony," known for his extraordinary approach to irony. In an effort to also surprise the public, Rossini writes an introduction, starting with a quiet bass sound and ending with a sudden full orchestral inclusion.

• The final ensemble sounding at the end of the first act can reasonably be called a unique decision in the operatic genre. Rossini adopted the onoperative method, using the musical potential of orchestral instruments so that their sound together resemble a hurricane, storm, storm. This, in the author's opinion, could convey the extreme confusion of all the heroes that reigned, according to the plot, on the scene at the end of the first act. At the same time, the ensemble "Confusi e stupidi" became a kind of forerunner of intrigue, which had just begun to emerge.
• In the creation of the opera was attended by an unknown assistant to the author. Rossini entrusted him with an essay of a recitative series and Ali's aria, in which the corsair glorifies Italian women.
• Despite belonging to the comic genre, the musical outline of the opera includes a number of pronounced accents in the patriotic key. Inspirational pathetics, cleverly disguised as a sentimental lyrical impulse, can be traced in Isabella’s appeal to her beloved: “Think of the Motherland, deny your fear, follow your duty. Look: examples of courage and honor have been revived in Italy!”. Could such words have left the indifferent Italians, who for many years had to endure either French governorship or Austrian oppression? Rossini’s skill and talent was manifested in the fact that he managed to conceal opposition appeals under the veil of absurd comedy so as not to prematurely attract the attention of the authorities.

The best rooms "Italians in Algeria"

"Languir per una bella" - Lindoro's aria from the 1st act, where the Italian expresses longing for his beloved, from whom the cruel Turkish governor separated him.

"Languir per una bella" (listen)

"Cruda sorte! Amor tiranno!" -Kavatina Isabella, 2nd scene of the first act. The sad motive acquires an optimistic development: the survivor of a shipwreck woman believes that she will be able to find her lover and release him.

"Cruda sorte! Amor tiranno!" (listen)

"Le femmine d'Italia" - the aria of the captain of the detachment of pirates Ali from the 2nd act, a laudatory ode to the beautiful Italians.

"Le femmine d'Italia" (listen)

The history of the creation of "Italians in Algeria"

The opera was written in 1813. The creative process took place on the wave of the success of the production of the heroic-mythological work Tancredi in Venice. The composer confidently secured only the reputation of a rising "star" of operatic art.

Rossini stated that the work was carried out in a great hurry and robbed him in the aggregate of 18 days. The libretto is owned by Italian Angelo Anelli. A professor of public speaking was listed at the La Scala Theater in Milan as a full-time librettist. The work of the poet had previously been used in the opera Luigi Mosca, which was presented to the public in 1808.

Rossini reworked the existing literary basis with Gaetano Rossi. With this Italian author, Rossini collaborated before, when creating the text for the operas The Marriage Bills and Tancred (based on the play by Voltaire). In music, Rossini demonstrated loyalty to his own style: he managed to harmoniously combine the "light" catchy melodious melodies with an incredibly energetic and dynamic orchestral accompaniment.

For the first time the opera was presented to the audience on May 22, 1813 in Venice. The famous theater "San Benedetto" became the first venue at which a surrealistic act was performed in two acts. Over the next two years after the successful premiere, the composer made changes to the score. On the stage of Naples and Milan, the opera took place with the account of the author's modifications.

“Italian in Algeria” opened the heavy doors of Italian opera houses to Rossini. Milan, Rome, Venice applauded the maestro and eagerly awaited new masterpieces from him. The furore produced by the dynamic opera in the bohemian society of Italy was partly due to the author’s precise hit in the mood that prevailed in the circles of the aristocracy and the common people. The Italians, with all their restless souls, sought independence, but were forced to remain under the rule of Austrian and French (in the northern regions) warlords. Obvious patriotic motifs in the plot and musical accompaniment, so masterfully expressed in the opera, strengthened the Italians' belief in their uniqueness, originality and superiority. The Rossini opera had a grand public response and revealed a national desire to unite the state under its own flag.

Productions of the opera "Italian in Algeria"

In January 1819, the "Italian in Algeria" was put on the stage of the Royal Theater in the British capital, in November 1832 - in New York. Opera was included in the repertoire of many theaters in Western Europe. The second breath gained its work after the Second World War (numerous productions were held with unchanged success). In 1998, the French director Andre Fladeric created a musical comedy of the same name, where the main role was played by Jennifer Larmore.

The comic opera "reached" the Russian Empire in 1817; the public in St. Petersburg had the opportunity to evaluate the opera translated into German. Then in 1822, the work was performed by Italian vocalists in the Moscow Apraksin Theater on Znamenka. In 2009, in St. Petersburg, on the stage of the theater "The Looking Glass", the opera was staged by the forces of the national troupe. An unprecedented event had the status of a sensation in the theater circles: previously, performances in Russia were performed exclusively with foreign performers.

What is the measure of success and the criterion of belonging to the classics? Relevance, lack of attachment to time and time. "Italian in Algeria" - a sample of classical opera in the comic genre. In the XXI century, it collects halls on different continents: in the Moscow Academic Musical Theater, on the stage of The Metropolitan Opera in New York. Already in 2019 announced productions in Venice (La Fenice) and Barcelona (Liceu).

Novelist Stendal in 1824 published a biography Rossiniwhere he expressed his personal opinion and his own interpretation of many actions and results of the work of the Italian genius. The French writer, a connoisseur of human souls, called the opera "Italian in Algeria“Absolutely organized madness”: insane action, from the first to the last played note, is controlled by an invisible “master of the ceremony,” incomparable to Rossini.