When the opera’s overture is as zippy and bubbly as heard in Lambert Hall, you know instinctively that this is a Gioachino Rossini opera buffa. The effervescence in orchestration (plucky strings, dotted clarinets, beating timpani), the increasing crescendos, the wealth of melody and subsequent inventions, the very happiness you hear from the orchestra is ample proof that the early 19th-century Italian master is front and center. This is music from none other.
In his previous works for the stage, Rossini was hailed as the new voice in Italian opera, basically the new voice in any opera. His Silken Ladder, Il signor Bruschino, and his opera seria Tancredi were hits at their premieres, but L’Italiana in Algeri (1813) was a smash. Overnight, Rossini became Mr. Opera. Bellini and Donizetti were waiting in the wings, and Verdi had just been born. The title was his and he ran with it, racking up successes like The Turk in Italy, The Barber of Seville, Otello, Cinderella, Semiramide, William Tell, scattered among many forgotten works, haphazardly revived today as rarities.
After 39 operas, at the age of 37, at the height of his fame and after the somewhat successful premiere of his French grand opera William Tell in 1829, Rossini stopped writing them. For the next 37 years, during bouts of sexual illness and depression, he continued to compose, and when he finally returned to Paris for successful medical treatment, he rebounded with renewed energy and became Paris’s most famous celebrity. His Saturday salons at his villa outside Paris or at his city apartment were famous throughout Europe, and the top stars in music, theater, and “social influencers” vied for invitations. His later works included the song cycle Musique anodine, Sins of Old Age and his Little Solemn Mass. He had lost none of his musical genius, in fact it had been resurrected.
There’s a quote from him that may or may not be apocryphal, but it rings so right it must be true. Why did you stop writing operas? asked an admirer. Rossini replied, Why write any more? They can’t sing what I’ve already written.
His florid style – the hallmark of early 19th-century operatic coloratura, replete with its elaborate curlicues, filigree, high tessitura (vocal range), and a pyrotechnical finish to arias, the cabaletta – is even today notoriously difficult to sing. His pedal-to-the-metal comic patter songs are the forerunners of Gilbert and Sullivan’s tongue-twisters. And his soft romanzas are lyrically sweet and instantly memorable. It’s no surprise that Rossini set the opera bar high for those who followed.
His classic, pure technique affected all who followed. No one escaped his vision. But everything changes. Styles mutate over time. Rossini is old school, but the best of educations, different from the passion of Verdi, the chromaticism of Wagner, the lushness of Richard Strauss, even the spikiness of Jake Heggie. Yet all who followed were indebted to this musician from Pesaro, Italy, who changed opera forever.
Opera in the Heights, in co-production with Anchorage Opera, brings a refreshing take to Rossini and librettist Angelo Anelli’s storybook tale of the West’s recurrent battle with the East – the Barbary pirates of Morocco. Director Ben Robinson updates the conflict to present day and sets his tale on a luxurious ship called the Algiers. The unit set by Edgar Guajardo is festooned with Deco sconces, high-end furniture, chic hanging drapes, and a dual staircase, like any other multi-decked cruiser out of Galveston. This happens to be a lively change and a good one.
The bones of the plot are still here, just given a nose tweak and a kick in the ass. The Bey, Mustafá, (baritone Andy Papas) still wants to divorce his wife Elvira (soprano Laura Corina Sanders, in magnificent voice) and find an Italian girl to replace her. Isabella (mezzo Kelly Guerra, also in magnificent voice), an Italian girl rescued at sea, remains feisty and in command, just as in Rossini. (He liked all his heroines as strong as they could be in the 19th-century.) She’s looking for her lost love Lindoro (tenor Andrew Morsten), who happens to be Mustafa’s valet, captured by the Bey as in the original. The eunuchs in service to the despot are gone and now supplanted by ship stewards. Everything fits neatly within Rossini’s sparkling score.
The silliness can be a bit over the top (there’s a custard pie dropped on Elvira, but the “massage sequence” in the ship’s spa is deftly handled), and maneuvering the nine principals and hefty chorus on the intimate Lambert Hall stage is a challenge, but the charm is undeniable and the singing, mostly, is top-notch.
Papas is a fine comedian, but his coloratura is a bit gruff and indistinct; Morsten hits all his high C’s but with effort; while bass baritone Isaiah Musik-Ayala, as major domo Haly, nails his part with presence and ringing voice. There’s a gay subplot between him and Taddeo (baritone Sejin Park, who commands the space with a resonant tone and superb diction) that’s unsuspected but handled with delicacy – during the escape, Taddeo throws Haly a life preserver to save him and fleeing maid Zulma (mezzo Meaghan Heath, all bright and bubbly). In the final seconds, they are reunited, as are all the Italians who have been saved by Isabella’s quick thinking and wily plotting. They wave Italian flags on the set’s upper deck as they sail off to Italy and freedom.
Maestro Eiki Isomura leads the reduced orchestra in tidal waves of Rossini’s patented sound to his buffa works. The reeds and woodwinds work overtime, the percussion is always here, the strings do yeoman’s duty as melody enhancers or thumping out the bass lines, while conductor Isomura doubles on the piano for the recitatives. The male chorus sounds very fine indeed, whether tapping spoons, singing out in full-throat, or cleaning up the stateroom. It’s all extremely pleasant.
Rossini’s first international hit is a pleasure for all the senses. Comedy, pathos, heartache, slapstick, it’s all here, overlaid with champagne fizz and heartfelt musicality. Opera in the Heights does Rossini proud.
L’Italiana in Algeri continues April 11 and 12. 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Opera in the Heights at Lambert Hall, 1703 Heights Boulevard. For more information, call 713-861-5303 or visit operaintheheights.org. $26-$85.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.
