"Demetrio e Polibio" represents an unusual case in all respects. Rossini composed it for an artists' family: Domenico Mombelli (composer and tenor); Vincenzina Vigano-Mombelli (his wife and sister of the celebrated choreographer, Salvatore Vigano), authoress of the booklet; and two daughters Ester and Anna (soprano and contralto, respectively). Ludovico Olivieri, butler and cook of the household, was covering the bass parts. Composed in 1806, the score remained unpublished, until Rossini started to become more and more famous, thus the opera was staged at 1812 to great acclaim. The division of the voices is clasical, contrasting tenor-bass-soprano-contralto, one of Rossini's favorite schemes which he used throughout his career, for example, in "Tancredi", "Bianca e Falliero" and "Maometto". The libretto of Vigano is typically faulty: the good Polibio (bass), King of Parthia, is the protector of both his own daughter, Lisinga (soprano), and her lover, Siveno (contralto), who is the long estranged son of Demetrio (tenor), King of Syria. Demetrio demands that Siveno be turned over to Syria and, when this fails, kidnaps Lisinga. Both parents proceed to threaten to kill each other's child; peace is restored just as Demetrio realizes that Siveno is his son. A rather classicl example of an over-the-top operatic plot, needed purely to enliven a series of musical numbers. But the music itself, though quite a long way from Rossini's best, is charming and, in some cases, very much <b>...</b>