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
Rocco Filippini concerts at the La Scala theatre in Milan, where he has played in recitals with cello and piano, performed the György Ligeti concerto with the Scala Philarmonic Orchestra, and taken part in many chamber music concerts, often in association with Maurizio Pollini, with whom he has performed concert programmes for several jears in Rome, London, Tokyo and New York, and at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro and Salzburg festivals. At the Salzburg Festival in 2002 he premièred Fabio Vacchi’s "Tre Veglie", with Anna Caterina Antonacci, accompanied by the Orchestre de Paris conducted by Ivan Fischer. In 1979 he was