Erwin Schrott makes debut as Selim at Rossini Festival

Erwin Schrott

Barihunk Erwin Schrott made his debut as Selim in Rossini's Il turco in Italia at the Rossini Festival in Pesaro. The production, which includes the all-star cast of Olga Peretyatko, Nicola Alaimo, Rene Barbera, Pietro Spagnoli, runs through August 18th. 

Rossini and his librettist Romani based Il turco in Italia on an earlier libretto with the same title written by poet Caterino Mazzolà (the librettist for Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito). The plot owes much to the Italian tradition of commedia dell’arte, particularly character types, such as the cuckolded husband and the flirtatious young woman. The character of the poet Prosdocimo encourages us to treat the drama with a certain irony.

Olga Peretyatko and Erwin Schrott in Il turco in Italia

The opera all but disappeared from the repertory during the latter part of the 19th century, as Rossini fell out of fashion. It came back to public attention in October 1950, when Luchino Visconti staged a production for Maria Callas, who was keen to play a comic role. The production was so successful that the opera’s popularity grew rapidly.

Schrott's next stage appearances will be later this year in Munich, where he sings the title role in Boito's Mefistofele and Dulcamara in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore. He returns to the Metropolitan Opera in April 2017 to sing Leporello alongside fellow barihunk Mariusz Kwiecien in Mozart's Don Giovanni.