When we were thinking of attending “The Turk in Italy” by Gioacchino Rossini at the Los Angeles Opera Music Center, our expectations were not great. Because of the reluctance, we got the tickets 4 hours prior to the curtain. We thought there would be a lot of empty seats; however, we must admit, we were lucky enough to get two seats, since almost everything was sold out by then. All of a sudden our expectations went up.
When the opera commenced, we were delighted to hear the words, “Turkey, Turkish, and Turk” over and over again. The fact that the Turk in the play (Selim) played by Simone Alberghini, was presented as a “Pompously Beguiling Turkish Prince” was not intimidating for us at all. To the contrary we enjoyed his gestures and overall performance, especially his entrance to the scene with a flying carpet.
Rossini’s music played by the orchestra was fabulous. The opera was great. We enjoyed every single scene of the play. Excellent selection of the artists, like incredible Nino Machaidze (Fiorilla), well-known opera star Thomas Allen (Prosdocimo, the Poet), and LA Opera debutants– Kate Lindsey (Zaida), Paolo Gavanelli (Don Geronio) and Maxim Mironov (Narciso); their emotional shifts in mood, entertaining performance, and beautiful singing makes you want to come back and enjoy this comedy again and again. Overall, we would strongly recommend everyone to see it.
Murat Mese & Noilya Malikova
Alaturkaonline.com
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