Rossini: The Italian in Algiers (Haus für Mozart, Salzburg 2018, directed by Mancini)

Since her recital-album debut in 1989, Roman-born Cecilia Bartoli has been one of the finest and most popular Rossini interpreters of our time. Rossini’s strong female characters and irony are particularly well suited to this exceptional singer. Bartoli’s enthralling performance as Isabella in Gioachino Rossini’s L'Italiana in Algeri at the 2018 Salzburg Festival was, without a doubt, a true highlight of the celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of the composer’s death. The video recording now being released is a real stroke of luck, as it is one of the rare audiovisual recordings of the Italian superstar. With her extraordinary acting skills, La Bartoli presents the spirited Italian woman in Algiers with charm, fire, elegance and finesse. Her Isabella is a strong, independent woman with no intention of yielding to the crude advances of the powerful Mustafà. In the production by BAFTA award winners Mosh Leiser and Patrice Caurier, which plays with prejudices about the cultures that collide, Mustafà is no longer an Ottoman bey but a shady gangster smuggling electronic goods through the port of Algiers. Ildar Abdrazakov sings the lustful macho “with visibly great enjoyment” (Salzburger Nachrichten) and is Cecilia Bartoli’s equal on stage. Conductor Jean-Christophe Spinosi, who is attuned to the subtleties and sparkle of Rossini’s score, leads the excellent Ensemble Matheus in a “brilliant performance” (New York Times).