Organization

Singer

Mezzo-soprano

Christianne Stotijn

Isabella

Tenor

Maxim Mironov

Lindoro

Bass

Giorgio Surian

Mustafa

Ruben Drole

Haly

Baritone

Yuri Vorobiev

Taddeo

Soprano

Elisaveta Martirosyan

Elvira

Sabina Willeit

Zulma

Conductor

Riccardo Frizza

Stage director

Toni Servillo

Costume designer

Ortensia De Francesco

Lighting designer

Pasquale Mari

Chorus master

Erwin Ortner

Festival d'Aix en Provence

Marco Vinco

Giorgio Caoduro

Set designer

Daniela dal Cin

Orchestra

Mahler Chamber Orchestra

L'italiana in Algeri -  (The Italian Girl in Algiers)

Aix-en-Provence

France

Grand Saint-Jean

L'Italiana in Algeri by G. Rossini, from Aix-en-Provence Festival, 2006. Directed by Toni Servillo, conductor Riccardo Frizza, starring Maxim Mironov, Christianne Stotijn, Giorgio Caoduro, Marco Vinco, Ruben Drole, Sabina Willeit and Elisaveta Martirosyan. Performed in Italian.

"A complete and organized madness": it would be difficult to find a more apt description than that of the writer Stendhal to describe this surrealist face, composed by Rossini in a matter of weeks (he claimed 18 days) and premiered in May 1813. In the madcap comedy L'Italiani in Algeri, dadaist sensibilities meet onomatopoetic Italian opera buffa in two acts brimming with frenetic rhythms—seeming to anticipate the films of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton—and yet, also, with great tenderness in the arias of Isabella and her fiancé Lindoro, and with the patriotic fervor that animated Venice during the era.

The corsair Mustafà, bored with his wife Elvira, wishes to find a new companion. He intends to marry Elvira off to his Italian slave Lindoro (Maxim Mironov), himself preoccupied with his fiancée Isabella (Christianne Stotijn) in Italy. Unbeknownst to him, Isabella has already made plans to come find Lindoro in Algiers—and upon her arrival, she charms Mustafà and fools him into thinking he has won her affections. Can she keep up the ruse long enough to escape back to Italy with her beloved?

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Ensemble