Gioacchino Rossini: The Italian in Algiers

Rossini's first "comic opera", The Italian in Algiers takes place in the Algerian capital around 1810. Mustafa, bey of Algiers, is tired of his wife Elvira. He demands that his servant Haly bring him an Italian to replace her. He wants to marry Elvira to his Italian slave Lindoro, who is in love with the Italian Isabella.

Among the greatest composers of the 19th century, by the importance and the quality of its repertoire, the name of Rossini is mainly related to opera: his most popular works are still today The Barber of Seville, La Cenerentola (after Cinderella), The Thieving Pie, The Italian in Algiers and William Tell.

Rossini often repeats himself in his work: he frequently reuses pieces of his works to write new ones. Examples of this practice are numerous. Thus, in Armida and L'Italienne in Algiers, we find traces of La Cenerentola.