Il Turco in Italia

Il Turco in Italia
Saturday April 18
6 pm reception // 7 pm show
Royal Opera House

Orchestra stalls: £115
Amphitheatre: £47.50

The Stanford Club of Great Britain has obtained an exclusive block of tickets to Gioachino Rossini's Il Turco in Italia at the Royal Opera House, at a discount of 40% from face value. The group will gather before the opera for a reception with wine and drinks in the Paul Hamlyn Hall, starting at 6 pm. The SCGB's trips to the opera have long been favourite events, selling out quickly. Book today to avoid disappointment.

Rossini was just 22 when he wrote Il turco in Italia, his 13th opera and his third for La Scala, Milan. The young composer clearly relished librettist Felice Romani's outrageous farce, which serves up brazen ridiculousness with cynical delight. But the heroine's wildly immoral antics caused some consternation at the opera's premiere on 14 August 1814, and would play a part in Il turco's virtual disappearance from Europe's stages later in the century. The opera wasn't seen again until 1950, in Luchino Visconti's La Scala production, which starred Maria Callas as the incorrigible Fiorilla. The production's triumph secured the opera's position as one of Rossini's most complex and uproarious comedies.

Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier's 2005 production – the Royal Opera House's first – evokes the postwar era in which Il turco was rediscovered. Rossini's acerbic absurdities become the ingredients of a glamorous Fellini-esque comedy, set under the baking Neapolitan sun. Bright colours, breathtaking slapstick and irrepressible energy are the perfect accompaniment to Rossini's exhilarating bel canto music, which includes an array of show-stopping arias, duets and the famous quintet 'Oh! guardate che accidente'.