Opera semiseria Opera semiseria Opera semiseria ('semi-serious opera') is an Italian genre of opera, popular in the early and middle 19th century. Related to the opera buffa, opera semiseria contains elements of comedy but also of pathos, sometimes with a pastoral setting. It can usually be distinguished from tragic operas or melodramas by the presence of a basso buffo. One of the better-known examples is Gaetano Donizetti's "Linda di Chamounix". Another example is Gioacchino Rossini's "La gazza ladra". Vincenzo Bellini's "La sonnambula" has all the characteristics of the genre except the presence of the required basso buffo and is regarded as both
Raquel Pierotti débuts at the Opera de Paris as Rosina in Rossini’s Barber of Seville, as well as at La Scala, Milan, as Marcellina in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro. Since then she has been a frequent guest at La Scala where she sang Clarice in La pietra del paragone (Rossini), Smeton in Anna Bolena (Donizetti), Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia (Rossini), Isabella in L’italiana in Algeri (Rossini), Maddalena in Il viaggio a Reims (Rossini), Cecilio in Lucio Silla (Mozart), and Fenena in Nabucco (Verdi) for the 1986/1987 Season Opening Night as well as in the tournées in Berlin, Japan (Tokyo,