Mosè in Egitto is a three-act opera written by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Andrea Leone Tottola, which was based on a 1760 play by Francesco Ringhieri, L'Osiride. It premièred on 5 March 1818 at the recently reconstructed Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Italy.
The composer in 1815
Scene for the third act in the 1827 production
Disegno per copertina di libretto, drawing for Mosè in Egitto (undated).
Act 1 set design of the original 1827 production
Gioachino Antonio Rossini was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces and some sacred music. He set new standards for both comic and serious opera before retiring from large-scale composition while still in his thirties, at the height of his popularity.
Rossini as a young man, c. 1810–1815
Giuseppe Rossini (1758–1839)
Anna Rossini (1771–1827)
The storm scene from Il barbiere in an 1830 lithograph by Alexandre Fragonard