Rossini: Maometto Secondo / June Anderson, Margarita Zimmermann, Ernesto Palacio, Samuel Ramey, Laurence Dale, Ambrosian Opera Chorus, Philharmonia Orchestra, Claudio Scimone / First recording / Philips 3x Audio CD Stereo / 412 148-2

UPC 028941214829

Maometto II (or Maometto secondo) is an 1820 opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Cesare della Valle. Set in the 1470s during a time of war between the Turks and Venetians, the work was commissioned by the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples. Della Valle based his libretto on his earlier play Anna Erizo. The name of the title character, Maometto II, refers to the real-life Ottoman Sultan and conqueror of Constantinople Mehmed II, who lived from 1432 to 1481.

Regarded "in some ways [as his] most ambitious opera" and as "the best of Rossini's Neapolitan operas", Maometto II failed to find an audience in Naples and, "to help ensure [its] success in Venice and Paris, he smoothed out the most audacious elements of the score". Venice first saw it on 22 December 1822 and then, translated into French and changed significantly, it was presented as Le siège de Corinthe in 1826.