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
Opera house as wealthy patrons and it continues to have a large number of working opera houses such as Teatro Massimo in Palermo (the biggest in Italy), Teatro di San Carlo in Naples (the world's oldest working opera house) and Teatro La Scala in Milan. In contrast, there was no opera house in London when Henry Purcell was composing and the first opera house in Germany was built in Hamburg in 1678. In the 17th and 18th centuries, opera houses were often financed by rulers, nobles, and wealthy people who used patronage of the arts to endorse their political ambition and social