Top Rossini Opera Picks from Netflix

I've been watching Rossini operas for the last couple of weeks from Netflix. They do have an absolutely huge selection of operas. Mostly, I find Rossini tiresome and tedious, but every now and again I am really surprised and delighted. Here are the Rossini operas I've watched in the last month:

*L'Occasione Fa Il Ladro
*La Scala di Seta
*La Donna del Lago
*Cinderella (Australian Opera)
*L'Italiana in Algeri

I've also seen Barber of Seville live and on DVD. Of these, the only 2 I would highly suggest a person see are Cinderella and the one-act L'Occasione Fa Il Ladro. They both are delightful and garnered four stars from me. The rest scratched by at two stars.

Another DVD that really blew my socks off, Viva Vivaldi, was a concert featuring Cecilia Bartoli of arias and other music by Vivaldi. Just plain awesome. If you want to see the real thing, both singing and the instrumentalists, you can't get any better than this. Definitely five stars.