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The Barber of Seville sponsored by:
Mike and Julie Bock
CIBER, Inc.
Tanya R. Mathews
The Ritz-Carlton, Denver
The Insider's Look
The Facts
Composer: Giacomo Rossini
Librettist: Cesare Sterbini
Debut: February 20, 1816 at Rome's Teatro Argentina
The Players
Rosina: ward of Bartolo
Doctor Bartolo: Rosina's guardian
Count Almaviva: a local nobleman
Figaro: the barber of Seville
Fiorello: the Count's servant
Basilio: Bartolo's accomplice
Listen For…
One of the most famous arias in operatic history, "Largo al factotum" (also known as "the Figaro song"), which has been heard in numerous cartoons, movies and television shows.
Other great selections include:
-"Dunque io son" – Rosina and Figaro, Act I
-"Una voce poco" – Rosina, Act I
-"Ecco ridente in cielo" – Almaviva, Act I
Did You Know?
The opera premiered under the title Almaviva and was subtitled "The Useless Precaution."
Rossini was known for recycling his own music – the overture was originally written for two previous operas. He was also a fast composer; the music for this opera was completed in under three weeks.
The Barber of Seville was the first Italian opera performed in America. It was produced at the Park Theater in New York on November 29, 1825.
The opera's story comes from the first in a trilogy of plays by French playwright Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais. Mozart's opera, The Marriage of Figaro, comes from the second play in the trilogy and was composed thirty years earlier.
The premiere of The Barber of Seville was a failure, with hissing, jeering and several on-stage accidents. The second performance was a roaring success.
This opera is one of the most frequently-referenced operas in popular culture. The music has been heard and parodied in Warner Brother's cartoons, The Simpsons, Mrs. Doubtfire, the Beatles' movie Help!, Seinfeld, and Our Gang.
Multimedia Extras
Warner Brother's "The Rabbit of Seville" (1950)
Click here to watch it on You Tube!
Production Photos
Photo credit: Fort Worth Opera.
Production Photo 1
Production Photo 2
Production Photo 3
