Teatro dell'Opera, ''Il turco in Italia''

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Today considered one among the most refined and innovative funny operas ever composed, The Turk in Italy debuted in 1814 at the Teatro alla Scala without great success and was considered for over one century one of the smaller operas of the genius of Pesaro, that composed when he was twenty-two only (but also the librettista Romani was only two years older than him).
To justify the initial adversity of Il Turco in Italia, now assumed as an absolute masterpiece, they have been advanced various suppositions, first among all that following which Rossini wanted to make fun of the public of the Teatro alla Scala paraphrasing with an inversion of roles The Italian Girl in Algiers, also represented in Milan the preceding year, after the debut in Venice at the Teatro San Benedetto that commissioned to him.
Despite of its diffusion, this gossip doesn't find a musical justification, as the two operas don't have anything in common.
Another motivation used to justify the late success of Il Turco in Italia is that the comparison with La Cenerentola and Il barbiere di Siviglia, that had immediately an extraordinary popularity due to their uncontrollable exuberance, relegated it to a secondary role in the musical production of Rossini.
It's sure that, beginning from the Years 1950 of last century, the opera definitely reentered in the theatrical repertoire thanks to the interpretations of the conductors Gianandrea Gavazzeni and Vittorio Gui, and, above all, to the memorable and unforgettable performances that Maria Callas offered to the public in the role of the easy protagonist Fiorilla.