Rossini: Il Turco in Italia

Along with Il Barbiere and L’Italiana, Il Turco in Italia is the high point of the ebullient buffa trilogy Rossini composed in his youth. This sparkling turquerie features the frivolous Neapolitan Fiorilla, hesitating between a libidinous pasha and her boring husband. Maria Callas was part of the Roman cast that revived the opera in 1950, after almost a century of oblivion, as well as in the Zeffirelli production la Scala held in 1954, of which this recording is a fine legacy. The hilarious duo she forms with Nicola Rossi-Lemeni is an iconic reference in Rossinian repertoire.