Gioachino Rossini - Ricciardo e Zoraide - "Contro cento" (Nelly Miricioiu, Bruce Ford, William Matte

Description

The next piece is the virtuoso quartet from "Ricciardo e Zoraide". Based on an 18th-c. mock-epic poem (Ricciardetto by Niccolò Forteguerri), the opera's plot centers around the love of Agorante, king of Nubia, for his captive Zoraide, daughter of an Asian prince; she in turn loves the Christian knight Ricciardo, who comes to rescue her. A further complication is provided in Agorante's repudiated wife, Zomira. It's a classical operatic situation: "Ermione", "La donna del lago", "Maometto" all ...