Technical Details: Interactive menu Sound: DTS/ DD 5.1/ Digital Stereo Region Code: worldwide Picture Format: 4:3  Special: 5.1 Surround Check Tool   Running Time: ca. 140 min.

Order No: 55010 Gioacchino Rossini Il Turco in Italia   Opera buffa in two acts   Orchestra: Orchestra of Caen Conductor: Laurent Pelissier Soloists: Francois Loup, Elisa Maurus, Susan Roberts, Jean Marc Ivaldi, Paul Gigue a.o.   Il turco in Italia is one of Rossini's wittiest but most neglected works. It is full of ingenious and freshly composed invention. It was Rossini's first collaboration with Felice Romani and Romani understood perfectly Rossini's love of pastiche and parody. He provided a commedia dell' arte scenario that gave Rossini plenty of opportunity to mock traditions he had helped to cultivate in the first place. The plot of Il turco is delightfully voluptuous and among the many jewels in the score, the duet for Geronio and Selim, in which the Turk tries to persuade the ageing husband to sell his wife to him, is widely considered one of the composer's masterpieces. The underlying conceit of the opera is that of a show within a show. From outside the proscenium, downstage and off to the side, a poet agonizes over a libretto-in-progress, while on centre stage, his characters and ideas take wing.   The colourful staging documented on the DVD in hand was recorded at the Theatre of Caen in 1995. Soloists include Francois Loup as Selim the Turk, Susan Robert, Elsa Maurus and Paul Guigue. The Caen Orchestra is conducted by Cyril Diederich and supported by the Theatre of Arts Rouen Ballet and Choir.