Rossini wrote some of music's most masterful and lovable ones. His gift for comic and tragic forms was matched by a relish for characterization, qualities that are always evident in his overtures. La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie) is perhaps the most famous, one of the world's most popular concert openers. But in Othello he reveals his more complex turns of phrase and in Le Seige de Corinthe this writing is dramatic and colorful. The overture for Elisabetta, Regina d'Inghilterra was used again a year later by Rossini for II barbiere di Siviglia. This is the fact if four discs of the complete Rossini Overtures. Christian Benda has descends from a long line of musician's. He is chief conductor and artistic director of the Prague Sinfonia Orchestra with which he has recorded numerous standard classical works, as well as Schubert's and Rossini's complete overtures.