The great writer Stendhal wrote of Il viaggio a Reims that "this opera is a feast". The plot is a contemporary farce tailor-made for a particular occasion - the coronation festivities of Charles X - though Rossini valued the music so highly that he reused at great part of the score three years later in the opera Le Comte Ory. With a cast of ten principal and eight smaller rôles, this sparkling work is heard complete for the first time and in accordance with the critical edition prepared by the Fondazione Rossini and Casa Ricordi.