L'Italiana in Algeri

Written at dizzying speed in the spring of 1813, Rossini's screwball comedy of the resourceful Italian girl who outwits the obtuse Mustafa set the seal on the young composer's meteoric rise to fame in the opera houses of Venice. Rossini was asked to write a piece to fill up a gap in the schedule at the Teatro di San Benedetto left by another composer's failure to deliver, and given the time available (certainly less than a month) shortcuts were inevitably taken. First of all, it was decided to recycle, with some revisions, the libretto of an existing opera, Luigi Mosca's L'italiana in Algeri of 1808, and not only were the recitatives outsourced but at least one, if not two of the arias were as well: Haly's "Le femmine d'Italia" and, more significantly, Lindoro's second-act solo "Oh, come il cor di giubilo". But the pay-off was that Rossini, relieved of these responsibilities, came up with a score of such wit and fresh inspiration that the secondhand plot was taken to a new level of irresistible humor and show-stopping silliness. - Container booklet, p. 4.