L'Assedio di Corinto

A few weeks before this performance, Beverly Sills made her Met debut in this all-but-unknown Rossini opera. As one critic explained, “The arias are vocal extravaganzas that would terrorize all but a few singers today.” But as Pamira, the young Greek woman who loves the Turkish leader, Maometto (Justino Díaz), who conquers Corinth with tragic consequences, Sills herself was really the conquering hero. “Perfectly phrased abandon,” was one description of her singing, and the audience simply went berserk. Shirley Verrett co-stars in the pants role of Neocle, the young Greek captain who has been promised Pamira in marriage.