Fiction Writer, Poet, Playwright, Educator, Memoir Writer and Literary Critic

I saw Rossini’s Maometto II at the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto on May 5, 2016.  It was sung in Italian with English translations projected above the stage.  Although this opera is entitled Maometto II, the main character is really young Anna, the daughter of Paolo Erisso, the Venetian leader.  Like many opera heroines, Anna gets put in an impossible position.  Two men love her:  Calbo, a brave Venetian general, and Maometto II, the Moslem sultan who has invaded Italy.  Anna had met and fallen in love with Maometto in Corinth, but he had told her that he was Uberto, a Corinthian nobleman.  When Paolo finds out that his daughter has fallen in love with his enemy, he is furious.   (more…)