After a few performances of Barbiere to open their season, the Italian company from the King's Theatre in London moved on to a less familiar piece in Rossini's Turco, opening on Saturday, 22 December, and receiving its third performance in Edinburgh. Later in the visit, after New Year, this was followed by The Thieving Magpie as well as a farce by Mayr.
The head of the company, the buffo bass Giuseppe de Begnis, here gave one of his most famous roles, as the near-cuckolded husband, Don Geronio. An unusual feature of the casting is the role of Albazar being performed as a travesti part.
The cast is detailed in an advertisement in The Scotsman. When the opera finished (expected to be around 10.15), the evening's entertainment continued with a two-act farce called Simpson and Co. This would have been performed by the resident theatre company, and for patrons who just wanted to see it, without sitting through the opera first, a reduced rate was charged.
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