The Canadian Opera Company closes its 2015/2016 season with the company premiere of Gioachino Rossini’s rarely performed grand bel canto opera, Maometto II. Superstar Italian bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni makes a highly anticipated COC debut in the title role in a new COC production by acclaimed American director David Alden, lauded as a “thrilling [piece of] experiential theatre” (Opera News). Renowned maestro Harry Bicket in the orchestra pit conducts this operatic rarity. Maometto II is sung in Italian with English SURTITLES and runs for seven performances at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts on April 29, May 1, 3, 5, 7, 11, 14, 2016.

Rossini’s comic operas – The Barber of Seville, Cinderella and The Italian Girl in Algiers – have long delighted audiences while many of his more serious operatic efforts faded from the repertoire. Maometto II, a serious work, disappeared in its original 1820 Naples form until receiving a triumphant return in David Alden’s production for Santa Fe Opera in 2012, now produced by the COC.

In Maometto II’s historical tale of the great Turkish sultan, Maometto, and his quest to conquer the Holy Roman Empire, Alden’s staging explores the work’s enduring relevancies; the most timeless of all being the personal struggles born out of the conflict of war. Strikingly coloured, Napoleonic-era, First Empire gowns glow jewel-like against a neoclassical marble colonnade. Surprising coups de théâtre are peppered throughout the production, including the sudden emergence of a statue of three galloping horses on which Maometto makes a dramatic exit.

Mastering Rossini’s fearsome vocal demands is Italian bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni, lauded as “a chilling and complex Maometto…his dashing stage presence and virile voice exude menacing authority” (New York Times) at the time of this production’s 2012 premiere in Santa Fe.

Single tickets for Maometto II range from $50 – $435 and are available online at coc.ca, by calling 416-363-8231, or in person at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts Box Office (145 Queen St. W.). For more information on specially priced tickets available to young people under the age of 15, standing room, Opera Under 30 presented by TD Bank Group, student groups and rush seating, visit coc.ca.