Despite establishing the bel canto tradition through a series of romantic, serious operas (Otello, William Tell) and elegant buffas (the timeless Barber Of Seville) Gioacchino Rossini retired at 37 to live life as a Parisian bon vivant. Fortunately, Rossini (1792-1868) came out of retirement to complete the Stabat Mater, a choral masterpiece every bit as impressive as his more famous works. An expression of the Mediterranean belief in life and faith, this setting of the Stabat Mater is written for full orchestra with four soloists and chorus.

This production of Rossinis Il Barbiere di Siviglia, staged by Coline Serreau, was presented at the Opera Bastille for the first time in 2002. It was the successful film directors second opera project. The international cast features one of the leading lyric mezzos working in the Rossini repertoire American Joyce DiDonato sings Rosina. German-Italian star tenor Roberto Saccà takes the role of her seducer, Count Almaviva and Czech baritone Dalibor Jenis, currently one of the best Figaros available, completes the leading trio. Delicate Spanish bass baritone Carlos Chausson playing Bartolo, Rosinas guardian, and Icelandic bass Kristinn Sigmundsson as the curious music teacher Basilio provide suitable buffo material for the operas various comic scenes.

For the last two decades or so the works of the composer from Pesaro have no longer revealed very many mysteries to the historian and the opera lover, for even Rossini’s rarer works are now regularly performed. A few operas, however, still remained in the archives, among them Ivanhoé, a famous pastiche conceived by Rossini in collaboration with Pacini, his Parisian publisher. Its revival allows us to fill in a chapter of the history of music which had remained incomplete and above all to get to know the work with which Rossini introduced himself to Parisian audiences, before offering them Le Siège de Corinthe. The composer from Pesaro, indeed, had too great a sense of publicity to feed the critics’ curiosity, lightheartedly, a new opera.

TDK presents a production of Rossinis LItaliana in Algeri by renowned opera stage director Andrei Serban and conducted by Bruno Campanella from the prestigious Opéra National de Paris. The excellent cast of singer-actors was led by international mezzo- star Jennifer Larmore who, with her unaffected contact with the audience, beautiful voice and excellent acting, is central to this staging. The American singer has acquired a reputation as a Rossini specialist, and is no stranger to inventive stagings of the composers comedies. However, the work may be named after the Italian girl, but her adversary Mustafà is just as dominant, and this production has one of the leading exponents of this gleeful role, the buffo bass Simone Alaimo.

TDK presents Rossini’s popular comic opera, La Cenerentola, in a staging from the opera house in Naples. The operatic re-telling of this much loved fairy-tale centres on Cinderella’s honesty and integrity, and on her willingness to forgive others, and to encourage those around her to be equally tolerant.

Le Comte Ory tells the story of a libidinous and cunning nobleman who disguises himself first as a hermit and then as a nun ("Sister Colette") in order to gain access to the virtuous Countess Adele, whose brother is away at the Crusades. The 2011 Met production was directed by the Tony Award-winning Broadway director Bartlett Sher, who in recent years has also staged Il barbiere di Siviglia and Les Contes d'Hoffman for the Met. Sher presented the action as an opera within an opera, updated the action by a few centuries and giving the costume designer, Catherine Zuber, the opportunity to create some particularly extravagant headgear.

“The role of Isabella is sung to perfection by Cecilia Bartoli – a clever, independent woman with an adventurous streak” (New York Times). Bartoli’s superb performance in Gioachino Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri (The Italian Girl in Algiers) at Salzburg Festival, directed by the BAFTA-winning stage director duo Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier, is a highlight among the Rossini celebrations on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the composer’s death. The DVD captures Bartoli’s excellent performance in a rare audiovisual recording of the Italian superstar, who is one of the most successful opera singers of our time. In this vibrant comedy, every look, every hand gesture brings Isabella to life: Bartoli presents the spirited Italian woman with fire, finesse and extraordinary acting abilities – “a Rossini masterclass” (Bachtrack).

Written in French in 1828 for the Paris Opéra, Le Comte Ory has maintained its success to this day. Re-using some of the music of his Viaggio a Reims, Rossini turns the disguise-based libretto into a spirited play of erotic lightness. Lluís Pasqual’s witty and clever production was recorded at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro. The dynamic, international young cast is headed by tenor Yijie Shi in the title role, Laura Polverelli as his astute page and María José Moreno as Countess Adèle. Paolo Carignani conducts with verve and brio.

The material on this release by Finnish bassoonist Jaakko Luoma with the marvelous Tapiola Sinfonietta under Janne Nisonen may seem obscure enough to be aimed at bassoonists only. They will certainly find a valuable repertory here, but the album is of considerably wider interest. The only remotely familiar work is the Bassoon Concerto in B flat major, K. 191, by the young Mozart, an elegant work in the French style that receives a suitably bittersweet performance.

Rossini’s classic take on the “Cinderella” story is a comic opera full of thrilling arias, beautiful melodies and lots of laughs. The Metropolitan’s charming production was revived in 2009 for star mezzo, Elīna Garanča. The mezzo triumphs in the role and dispatches vocal fireworks throughout. She is joined by American tenor Lawrence Brownlee and a cast of bel canto singers.

Composed for the coronation of Charles X in Rheims Cathedral, this pièce de circonstance was to remain Rossini's last Italian opera. It contains some of the most inspired and brilliant vocal writing the composer ever produced. Most experts and analysts agree that this is an unconventinal opera, light and ironic, festive and exuberant, with a plot as simple as it is extrvagant, a work full of musical references which almost turn it, very subtly, into a "metaopera," or an "opera about opera."

In a time when operas are often set to different contexts from the ones they were intended for, a philological production has its merits, representing both a rediscovery and a provocation. This Barbiere di Siviglia, which at first sight might appear old-fashioned, restores, in fact, to perfection the setting of an early 19th-centrury Italian theatre. It was a time when the glorious tradition of popular comedy, a direct descendant of the 16th-century “commedia dell’arte”, was very much alive, and the singers entertained the audience with humor that was direct and catchy.

This 2010 production of La Cenerentola, recorded at the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, is set in modern times. On the rather empty, bare stage there are a few elements which stand out: the colourful costumes, the two giant chandeliers and the 1970’s kitchen. Quoting the director’s own words, “the emptiness of the stage leaves room for creativity as the characters keep on changing and disguising their true identity. I have stuck to Rossini’s original notes while neglecting all the legends linked to the character of Cinderella”.

The press enthusiastically declared this Barber of Seville a “firework display of exhilarating comedy” and praised the "unforced liveliness" of the cast. EuroArts releases this highly acclaimed staging of one of the most popular operas ever written. Vesselina Kasarova is the undisputed star of this production – she shines musically and dramatically in the part of Rosina, one of her signature roles, which she has since been invited to sing in many major opera houses from Vienna to New York.

Aureliano in Palmira celebrated its fi rst première on 26 December 1813 at the Scala In Milan. Soon afterwards the work was played in different theatres all over Europe. Nevertheless Rossini’s piece fell into oblivion more and more compared to the great competitors like “Tancredi” or the “Barber of Seville” for which Rossini recycled musical parts of “Aureliano”. But since a few years there are ambitions to play this work about love, war, jealousy, loyalty and magnanimity more frequently.