A smooth-talking pasha, a writer lacking inspiration and a gullible oldster are the characters of Il Turco in Italia.
Tired of her homebody of a husband (“There is no greater madness than to love one alone”), Fiorilla is eager to turn this maxim into a reality and sets off an endless line of uncontrollable misunderstandings and encounters, turning everyone insane in the process.
In this high-voltage opera buffa, written after L'italiana in Algeri and before The Barber of Seville, Rossini deployed frantic ensembles of eloquence and panache. As per his Barbe-bleue last season, Laurent Pelly is an expert of humorous, scathing comedies. He was the ideal person to direct a show set in a universe inspired by photo-stories featuring an international, high-quality cast: soprano Sara Blanch, bass Adrian Sâmpetrean and baritones Florian Sempey and Renato Girolami.