Il barbiere di Siviglia

Verdi hailed Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville, 1816) as the greatest comic opera of all time, and generations have since agreed with him. But it wasn’t all smooth sailing for Rossini’s most popular piece, whose success arrived only after a disastrous opening night. (Think singers falling over, a cat wandering onstage and jeering from the crowd.) A mature work, famously composed in just two weeks, Il barbiere is the ultimate refinement of bel canto techniques. Virtuosic vocal display and intricate ensemble finales meet deftly sketched characters to create a classic. Based on the first of Pierre Beaumarchais’s scandalous triptych of Figaro stage plays (Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro adapts the second), Il barbiere is a romantic comedy that pits love against greed. Beautiful Rosina is kept all but prisoner by her guardian Doctor Bartolo, who secretly hopes to banish all her admirers and keep both Rosina and her large dowry for himself. But when Count Almaviva falls in love with her, he enlists the help of the wily barber Figaro to help him outwit his rival. Il barbiere gives all its singers a turn in the spotlight. Rosina’s show-stopping Act I aria “Una voce poco fa” reveals the fiery and determined spirit beneath the heroine’s outward meekness, while the irrepressible patter of “Largo al factotum” is the key to Figaro himself: the barber whose tongue is as quick as his wit.