About the work
Adina, ossia Il califfo di Bagdad is a farsa in one act by Gioachino Rossini to a libretto by the Marchese Gherardo Bevilacqua-Aldobrandini. Rossini composed it already in 1818 on a private commission from a Portuguese nobleman who wanted to give it to a soprano he admired; it was not staged until eight years later, on 22 June 1826, at the Teatro de São Carlos in Lisbon — Rossini probably never heard it performed.
Plot
In the Caliph of Baghdad's harem, the slave girl Adina is betrothed to the Caliph, who loves her because she reminds him of Zora, a woman from his youth. Adina's heart, however, belongs to Selimo, her companion from adolescence whom she had believed dead. When Selimo returns, the couple tries to flee but is discovered. A medallion bearing the Caliph's portrait finally reveals Adina to be Zora's daughter, and thus the Caliph's own daughter — clearing the way for the lovers.
Cultural significance
Rossini wrote no overture, since none was stipulated in the contract; only four of the numbers are his own direct work, and three more he reused from his own opera "Sigismondo". As an exotic abduction plot, Adina belongs to the period's popular "abduction from the seraglio" tradition, but its unusual genesis and delayed premiere left it a marginal work within Rossini's output.