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"Dear God: here it is finished, this poor little Mass... I was born for opera buffa, you know it well! A little science, some heart, that's all..." - composer's envoi to "Petite Messe Solennelle". It wouldn't be a mistake to say that Rossini was a successor in a line of great comic composers: Pergolesi, Piccini, Cimarosa, Mozart, to name just a few names. All these composers, and Rossini is a continuation of a good tradition, were also adept at writing serious operas, some, like Mozart, more than others, but all the mentioned composers have produced successful forays into the genre of tragedy. And yet when we think of Cimarosa, Piccini, even Mozart and, in particular, Rossini, the first works that come to our (well, at least mine) minds are their sentimental comic operas, rather than the more grave works. Perhaps, this is connected to a great extent with the whole style in which the composer's wrote and the color of each composer's writing. In many cases the reason is the composer's personality: all four composers were young when they started composing, moreover, all four were quite famous for their rather sunny disposition to life, in general. In Rossini's case it is both: a particularly famous bon vivant with a preference of a musical style that is most natural in opera buffa. Surprisingly, though Rossini is best known for his less serious works, his creative output includes three operas semi-seria (6 acts in total), twenty-one serious operas (50 acts, without the two pastiches that were created with the composer's consent for the Parisian public, "Ivanhoe" and "Robert" (even if we delete the two rewrites: "Le siege de Corinthe" and "Moise", we still get 43 acts of music)) and only sixteen comic operas (moreover, seven of these are one-acters, so we have only 25 acts). Quite a surprise from someone who is considered by most only a composer of opera buffa. Still, Rossini was right about himself (if you don't know yourself than what do you know?), and, to be honest, it is in the comic operas where his talent is truly at his best, as good as his serious works are. As good recordings of either "La gazetta" or "Adina" are absent from my collection, they are not going to be represented in this compilation. Everything else will be represented at least by one number. Moreover, the operas will be grouped around their common trait: "The first five one-acters", "The four masterpieces" (by which I, of course, mean "Il barbiere di Siviglia", "La Cenerentola", "L'italiana in Algeri" and, yes, "Il turco in Italia"), "The three operas semi-seria", "The gargantuan one-acter/cantata", "The one opera comique". I do hope that you will enjoy this collection just as much as I have enjoyed making it :)!