La gazza ladra La gazza ladra La gazza ladra (, The Thieving Magpie) is a "melodramma" or opera semiseria in two acts by Gioachino Rossini, with a libretto by Giovanni Gherardini based on "La pie voleuse" by Théodore Baudouin d'Aubigny and Louis-Charles Caigniez. The composer Giaochino Rossini wrote quickly, and "La gazza ladra" was no exception. According to legend, before the first performance of the opera, the producer assured the composition of the overture by locking Rossini in a room, from the window of which the composer threw out the sheets of music to the copyists who then wrote the orchestral parts, to
Armida (Rossini) Armida (Rossini) Armida is an opera in three acts by Italian composer Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto ("dramma per musica") by Giovanni Schmidt, based on scenes from "Gerusalemme liberata" by Torquato Tasso. "Armida" was written to be performed at the Teatro di San Carlo, Naples, on 11 November 1817 to celebrate the opening of the rebuilt opera house, which had been destroyed by fire the previous year. Isabella Colbran sang the title role, which is one of the longest and most demanding that Rossini wrote, with difficult coloratura passages of every kind during the entire opera. The most notable