When Rossini Puts Theatre on Stage

What if the central character of an opera were not a lover, a hero or a king, but a writer searching for a story? That is the remarkably modern idea at the heart of The Turk in Italy. Gioachino Rossini imagines a poet who treats reality as a laboratory: he listens to conversations, encourages encounters, observes his characters' passions and, as events unfold, creates before the audience the very comedy he has been trying to write. More than two centuries before theatre openly began to reflect on itself, Rossini had already transformed the stage into a place where a story comes into being before the spectators' eyes. With this sophisticated opera buffa, the New National Theatre, Tokyo opens its 2026-2027 opera season, bringing back one of the most inventive - yet still comparatively overlooked - works in Rossini's repertoire. Composed in 1814 to a libretto by Felice Romani, The Turk in Italy tells the story of Prince Selim, whose arrival on the Italian coast disrupts the emotional balance of the spirited Fiorilla. Married to the patient Geronio but eager for new adventures, she soon becomes entangled in a web of misunderstandings that also involves her persistent admirer Narciso. Watching over the entire story is Prosdocimo, the poet who observes every twist of the plot like an author selecting, shaping and refining the material for his next comedy. He is the opera's true driving force. Rather than directly controlling the characters' destinies, he follows them, comments on their actions and transforms their emotions into theatre. It is this structure that makes The Turk in Italy one of Rossini's most original creations. While its comedy arises from romantic misunderstandings and Rossini's sparkling musical invention, its deeper fascination lies in the constant interplay between reality and fiction. The characters live their lives while someone else observes, interprets and transforms them into a theatrical narrative, inviting the audience to reflect on the very process through which stories are created. The new production is directed by Laurent Pelly, the acclaimed French stage director celebrated for his elegant visual style and his ability to combine musical precision with theatrical wit. Originally created in collaboration between Madrid's Teatro Real and the Opéra National de Lyon, where it premiered in 2023, the production now arrives in Japan for the first time. Conducting his debut at the New National Theatre is Italian maestro Alessandro Bonato, while the cast brings together leading Rossini specialists, including Claudia Muschio as Fiorilla, Alejandro Baliñas Vieites as Selim, Paolo Bordogna as Geronio, Bruno Taddia as Prosdocimo and Ruzil Gatin as Narciso. For many years, The Turk in Italy lived in the shadow of L'Italiana in Algeri, with which it shares the nineteenth-century fascination for exoticism and the Ottoman world. Only during the second half of the twentieth century did critics begin to recognise just how different this opera is from Rossini's other comic works. Beneath its sparkling romantic intrigue lies a sophisticated reflection on desire, the creation of fictional characters and the theatre's ability to transform reality into narrative. Rossini's score perfectly mirrors this idea. Brilliant ensembles, dazzling vocal virtuosity and exhilarating finales are never mere displays of technical brilliance; they constantly propel the drama forward with an almost cinematic rhythm. Each character pursues their own truth, while Prosdocimo observes everything with the detachment of someone who understands that, once a story is told, life itself inevitably becomes theatre. It is precisely this awareness that makes The Turk in Italy feel strikingly contemporary today. More than a comic opera of misunderstandings, it is a meditation on how stories are created - and on how reality itself changes the moment someone begins to tell it.