Combine a helter skelter libretto with a classic Rossini score complete with bel canto highpoints and you'll have the opera L'Italiana in Algeri about to go on stage at Lambert Hall in a co-production between Opera in the Heights and Anchorage Opera.

After four performances in Houston, the cast will travel to Alaska to perform at the Anchorage Opera Performing Arts Center — a benefit to the performers who with contract extensions will make more money. In both cases, Ben Robinson, general director of Anchorage Opera is handling stage directing duties.