William Matteuzzi tutte"), Vincenzo Bellini ("I Puritani" and "La Sonnambula"), Gaetano Donizetti ("La fille du régiment") and Giovanni Pacini ("L’ultimo giorno di Pompei"). A highly respected Rossini specialist, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1988 as Count Almaviva in "Il barbiere di Siviglia". He has performed Rossini's comic operas "La scala di seta", "L'occasione fa il ladro", "L'italiana in Algeri", "La gazza ladra", "La Cenerentola", "La pietra del paragone", "Il viaggio a Reims", "Le comte Ory" as well as his "opere serie" "Otello", "Zelmira, Armida", "Ricciardo e Zoraide", "Maometto II", "Semiramide", etc. He now mainly dedicates himself to teaching singing and
La straniera new style and its restless harmonic shifts into remote keys did not please all. 45 years later it was stated that "Bellini's style was abstruse, discontinuous, distorted, and lacking in distinction, that it alternated among the "serio" and the "buffo" and the "semi-serio"." 19th century performances The opera was first performed at La Scala, Milan on 14 February 1829, with Henriette Méric-Lalande and Domenico Reina in the leading roles. Alessandro Sanquirico, the well-established set designer of the time, designed the sets, and the opera was presented on a triple bill, along with the ballets "Buondelmonte" and "L'avviso ai maritati". Within