With its carefully planned yet complex dramatic structure and skillful transformation of a tale of heroic conflict between two enemies into a drama of impossible love, Maometto II is considered Rossini’s most radical and innovative opera. Against the background of the violent and cruel tumult of war as the Venetian colony of Negroponte is invaded and defeated by Sultan Mehmet II ‘the Conqueror,’ in 1470, Rossini contrasts this clash of civilizations with the tender emotions of a doomed romance expressed in some of the most beautiful melodies he ever wrote. Heard here in its original Naples version- the more conventional 1822 Venice version with its overture and happy ending can be heard on a separate Naxos recording- this is a movingly tragic drama in which the suicide of the main female role is not without a grim relevance even today.