You are invited to imagine that you are in the 1840s and that a gala concert has been arranged in honour of the greatest composer of the age - Gioachino Rossini - in one of the world's most beautiful theatres, the Royal Opera House of the Chateau de Versailles.
The performers are Montserrat Caballe Marilyn Home Francisco Araiza
Ruggiero Raimondi and Samuel Ramey with the Radio France Chorus
ENZO DARA. EVA LIND. RAQUEL PIEROTTI, GIORGIO SURJAN and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe conductor Claudio Abbado Paul Brook as Rossini Including arias, duets, ensembles and overtures from Rossini's comic operas and his more serious works:
The Barber of Seville, William Tell , Cinderella, The Italian Girl in Algiers, The Thieving Magpie, Moses, and the Stabat Mater.
Producers PETER GELB and ANDREA ANDERMANN
Subtitles by GILLIAN WIDDICOMBE Designer BRUCE SNYDER
Original production conceived and directed by FRANK DUNLOP Directed for television by YVES-ANDRE HUBERT and HUMPHREY BURTON