Abstract: The presence on stage of a poet seeking inspiration is considered as an innovative element of the libretto of Rossini’s Turco in Italia. Yet this situation was already well-known to opera lovers of the early 19th century. The innovative aspect of the work is elsewhere: in the unusual use of musical patterns, or the role given to recitative, which makes it possible to differentiate between the real world from that of art and fiction, but also to merge them in an astonishing play of mirrors.
