While love and opera are commonly associated, the comic operas of Gioachino Rossini are not the first to come to mind. Instead, Rossini has a reputation for detachment, irony, and a lack of realism; absent too is the psychological insight of Mozart and the sentimentality of Donizetti and Bellini. This study argues against these assertions by exploring the notion of Rossinian love in L’Italiana in Algeri which premiered in 1813, libretto by Angelo Anelli. Based on an analysis of the opera as an opera buffa and the contemporary Italian experience, such as the Barbary pirates, European slavery, and cicisbeism, the type of love exhibited by each character is described. Conclusions are drawn by comparing Rossini and Mozart and the changes that occurred in between their productive lives.
AnelliA (2016 [2003]) L’italiana in Algeri, dramma giocoso per musica. Testi di Angelo Anelli musiche di Gioachino Rossini. Edited by D Zanotti. Available at: http://www.librettidopera.it/zpdf/italgeri.pdf (accessed 6 June 2025).
2.
BaudelaireC (1868) Œuvres complètes de Baudelaire, II, Curiosités esthétiques. Paris: Michel Lévy Frères.
BizzocchiR (2009) Cicisbei, Italian morality and European values in the eighteenth century. In: FindlenPWassyng RoworthWSamaC (eds) Italy’s Eighteenth Century: Gender and Culture in the Age of the Grand Tour. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
5.
BizzocchiR (2014) A Lady’s Man, the Cicisbei, Private Morals and National Identity in Italy. Translated by N Mazhar. Palgrave Macmillan.
6.
BonomiI (2015) Un piccolo capolavoro dell’opera buffa L’italiana in Algeri di Angelo Anelli e Gioacchino Rossini. Annali di storia bresciana3: 135–149.
7.
BuddenJ (1973) The Operas of Verdi. Vol. 1. Oxford University Press.
8.
BuddenJ (1992) Opera semiseria. In: SadieS (ed.) The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. Vol. 3London: Macmillan, 697–698.
9.
BurneyC(2005 [1771) The Present State of Music in France and Italy: Or, the Journal of a Tour through Those Countries, Undertaken to Collect Materials for a General History of Music. Monee, IL: Elibron Classics.
10.
BusticoG (1921) An anti-romantic librettist (Angelo Anelli). Rivista Musicale Italiana28: 53–75.
CaronniF (1805–1806) Ragguaglio del viaggio compendioso di un dilettante antiquario, sorpreso da’ corsari, condotto in Barberia e felicemente ripatriato.2 vols. Milan: Sonzogno.
14.
ChiariniG (1882) Poesia di Ugo Foscolo. Livorno: Vigo.
15.
ChiariniG (1904) Poesia di Ugo Foscolo. Livorno: Raffaello Giusti.
CostantiniGA (1751) Critiche giocose, morali, scientifiche, ed erudite. Venice: Pietro Bassaglia and Angelo Pasinelli.
19.
DavisRC (2003) Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters, White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500. 1800. New York: Palgrave.
20.
Di CarloC (2013) Rossini and the female universe. Writing163(2013): 59–72.
21.
EveristM (2001) Enshrining Mozart: Don Giovanni and the Viardot circle. 19th-Century Music25: 165–189.
22.
FabbriP (1993) Due Italiane in Algeri. In: EngelhardtM (ed) Convegno italo-tedesco, Mozart, Paisiello, Rossini e l'opera buffa. Rome: Laaber-Verlag, 349–386.
23.
FisherBD (2000) L'italiana in Algeri: The Italian Girl in Algiers. Coral Gables, FL: Opera Journeys Publishing.
24.
GazzolaG (2015) Betting against themselves: Conflicting conceptions of love in Così fan tutte, o: La scola degli amanti. MLN130: 105–123.
25.
GossettP (1989) Organized and complete madness. L’italiana in Algeri. [Audio recording]. Liner notes, Deutsche Grammophon, 427 331–2, Claudio Abbado, conductor.
26.
GossettP (1992) Searching for a sacred style, Rossini’s “Messa di Gloria.” [Audio recording]. Liner notes, Philips, 475 7781, Sir Neville Marriner, conductor.
27.
HarthanJP (1946) Stendhal and Mozart. Music & Letters27: 174–179.
28.
JohnsonL (2007) Enlightenment according to Don Alfonso: Perilous progress in Mozart’s Così fan tutte. In: McCarthyJASchadeRESevinD (eds) Practicing Progress: The Promise and Limitations of Enlightenment; Festschrift for John A McCarthy.Amsterdam: Rodopi,59–74.
29.
KlarerM (2022) Barbary Captives: An Anthology of Early Modern Slave Memoirs by Europeans in North Africa. New York: Columbia University Press.
30.
MathewNWaltonB (2013) The Invention of Beethoven and Rossini. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
31.
MichotteE (1968) Richard Wagner’s Visit to Rossini and an Evening at Beau-Sejour. Translated by H Weinstock. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Oropesa L (2022) Rossini and Donizetti: French Bel Canto Arias. [Audio recording]. Pentatone, 2022, PTV 5186 955, Corrado Rovaris, conductor.
35.
PanzacD (2005) The Barbary Corsairs: The End of a Legend, 1800-1820. Translated by V Hobson. Boston: Brill.
36.
PolzonettiP (2002) Mesmerizing adultery: Così fan tutte and the Kornman scandal. Cambridge Opera Journal14: 263–296.
37.
PonnelleJ-P (1989) Rossini’s opera buffa, music as theatrical essence. In:RossiniG,L’italiana in Algeri [Audio recording]. Deutsche Grammophon, 1989, 427331-2, Claudio Abbado, conductor.
38.
QuestaC (1997 [1979]) Il ratto dal serraglio: Euripide, Plauto, Mozart, Rossini. Vol. 6. In: Letteratura e antropologia. Urbino: QuattroVenti. Original ed. (1979) Vol. 1 of Semiologia della narrazione. Bologna: Pàtron Editore, 1–211.
RattalinoP (1977) [Audio recording]. Petite messe solennelle. Liner notes, ‘Turn to the past and there will be progress’: This theme of Giuseppe Verdi developed by Gioacchino Rossini. Dir. Romano Gandolfi, Ars Nova CS 134.
41.
RoselliJ (1984) The Opera Industry in Italy from Cimarosa to Verdi, the Role of the Impresario. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
