Rossini's great comic opera satirising the influence of the media in this high-definition production from Barcelona

Director
Dario Fo

Composer
Gioachino Rossini

Performers
Lisetta: Cinzia Forte
Don Pompino: Bruno Pratico
Filippo: Pietro Spagnoli
Alberto: Charles Workman
Madame de la Rose: Agata Bienkowska
Doralice: Marisa Martins

The Symphonic Orchestra of the Academy of the Grand Theatre, Liceu
Maurizio Barbacini (conductor)

Rossini wrote this little-performed opera just one month after completing The Barber of Seville, and completed it shortly before composing La Cenerentola, so, hemmed in as it was by two such immediately popular works, it's perhaps unsurprising that La Gazzetta is less well-known.

A comic opera, La Gazzetta satirises the influence of newspapers on the lives of the newly-affluent middle classes. The main buffo role is a Neapolitan, Don Pomponio Storione, who is searching for a husband for his daughter. He places advertisements in newspapers, and after a series of unsuccessful applicants, including a Quaker and a hotel waiter, he finally resigns to let his daughter marry her lover, the only one he considers inappropriate.

A wonderfully warm and stylishly staged opera, this is a well-deserved comeback for a little-known work.