In November the Istanbul State Opera and Ballet company are to give two more performances of Gioachino Rossini’s opera Maometto Secundo (Mehmet II), which they premiered in February this year and repeated in May. The AKM website gives us the following general information about this opera, whose plot is based on an imaginary love story involving Sultan Mehmet II: ‘The work, considered Rossini’s most innovative and ambitious opera, boasts a rich orchestration. Its carefully planned but equally complex dramatic structure includes elements of melodrama such as political intrigue, conspiracy and tragedy.’
In the blog I wrote after attending the premiere on February 24, I said the following: ‘I was bowled over both by the skill of the performers and by the care and expertise that had patently gone into staging the event. One might legitimately expect the Turkish State Opera and Ballet Company to go to great lengths to make a production featuring Fatih Sultan Mehmet (‘Mehmet the Conqueror’) worthy of his name, but I was not just pleasantly surprised by its quality: I was pleasantly shocked.’ I also put in a word for the male and female choruses, both of which were superb.
Issue 66, December 2023
Turkey’s Centenary Issue
