Agnes Baltsa Commandeers the Fioratura of Gioachino Rossini

Largo al Factotum: Jersey Shore Season 4 Goes to Italy

Get More: Jersey Shore, MTV Shows

Get More: Jersey Shore, MTV Shows

This isn't the first time that MTV has dipped its toe in the opera pond. Remember when they held the Video Music Awards show at the Metropolitan Opera in 1999? Well, the advertisements for the show were pretty operatically entertaining. Check out the images after the jump.

David Bowie as Mephistopheles in Gounod's Faust

Madonna in the title role of Bellini's Norma

Eminem as Siegfried from Wagner's Ring

Chris Rock in the title role of Verdi's Rigoletto

Ozzy Osbourne as Canio in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci

Britney Spears as Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata

Janet Jackson as Cleopatra in Händel's Giulio Cesare

EMI Records Rossini's "Guillaume Tell" Under Pappano

Video introduction by the Maestro after the jump.

When Rossini Recycled Arias From His Late Operas

Il viaggio a Reims, ossia L'albergo del Giglio d'Oro

Premiere: June 19, 1825 - Théâtre national de l'Opéra-Comique

"En proie à la tristesse" sung by Mariella Devia

Le comte Ory

Premiere: August 20, 1828 - Salle Le Peletier

"Partir, o ciel, desio" sung by Kathleen Battle