The Italian Girl in Algiers by Rossini, Sat 20 Sep 2014, From (2014/2014), Directed by Julia Pevzner, Conductor Marzio Conti, Musical Arts Center, Bloomington, United States

The music sparkles and so does the comedy in Rossini’s story of Isabella, the Italian girl, and her adventures in the long-ago court of Mustafa, a governor in Algeria. Captured by pirates after she’s shipwrecked, Isabella is delivered to Mustafa as a prospective wife—but he already has a wife! And not only that—he has a slave who happens to be Isabella’s fiancé! But Mustafa is not the brightest bulb in the box, and he’s no match for the wily Isabella. Enjoy as she outmaneuvers him at every turn, planning and executing a brilliant mass escape worthy of a four-star general.