Il turco in Italia Il turco in Italia Il turco in Italia (The Turk in Italy) is an opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini. The Italian-language libretto was written by Felice Romani. It was a re-working of a libretto by Caterino Mazzolà set as an opera (with the same title) by the German composer in 1788. An opera buffa, it was influenced by Mozart's "Così fan tutte", which was performed at the same theatre shortly before Rossini's work. The strangely harmonized overture, though infrequently recorded, is one of the best examples of Rossini's characteristic style. An unusually long introduction displays an extended, melancholy
Josephine Lucchese "Rigoletto", Lady Harriet Durham in "Martha", Micaëla in "Carmen", Rosina in "The Barber of Seville", Violetta in "La traviata", and the title role in "Lucia di Lammermoor". In 1925 Lucchese performed Violetta to 's Alfredo at the Academy of Music in the very first performance of the Philadelphia La Scala Opera Company. In 1926 she made her debut with the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company (PGOC) as Gilda to Millo Picco's Rigoletto. She later became a resident artist with the PGOC from 1929 until the company's bankruptcy in 1932, performing such roles as Konstanze in "The Abduction from the Seraglio", Leïla