The Barber of Seville

“I am the factotum of the city"-with this phrase the Barber of Seville is introduced in Gioacchino Rossini's opera of the same name.

“Here's the wig, quickly the beard! Here's the sanguine,quickly the note! Everyone asks me, everyone wants me, Figaro here, Figaro there!”

French writer and adventurer Caron de Beaumarchais introduced this prototypical hairdresser and barber into the European literature in 1775.

Mozart and his librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte drew from the second part of his Figaro trilogy, “La folle journée ou Le mariage de Figaro,” the comic opera “Le nozze di Figaro

“I am the factotum of the city"-with this phrase the Barber of Seville is introduced in Gioacchino Rossini's opera of the same name.

“Here's the wig, quickly the beard! Here's the sanguine,quickly the note! Everyone asks me, everyone wants me, Figaro here, Figaro there!”

French writer and adventurer Caron de Beaumarchais introduced this prototypical hairdresser and barber into the European literature in 1775.

Mozart and his librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte drew from the second part of his Figaro trilogy, “La folle journée ou Le mariage de Figaro,” the comic opera “Le nozze di Figaro | The Marriage of Figaro.

In 1782 Giovanni Pasiello adapted - as Rossini did later - the first part, “Le Barbier de Séville ou La précaution inutile,” producing with this “dramma giocoso” a highly successful opera performed throughout Europe.

In 1816, the 23-year-old Rossini composed his “Barber of Seville” in just three weeks to a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The opera-which, with its initial title of “Almaviva o sia L'inutile precauzione,” differs markedly from Paisiello's popular original-was first performed during the 1816 Carnival at the Teatro Argentina in Rome.

However, the premiere was a complete failure. The composer remembers it so: “When my opera came out, they pounced like wild animals on the beardless little maestro, and the first performance was among the most stormy. I was not restless, however, and while the spectators booed, I applauded the performers.”

From Beaumarchais' subject, with many cutting remarks on the despotism of the French Ancien Régime, 41 years after Figaro's first appearance, a comedy of disguises or a commedia dell'arte was born, to the background of orchestral music, which tells the story of the wily barber, the bumbling Count of Almaviva, the eager Don Bartolo and the beautiful Rosina, around whom the whole affair revolves.

Of course the turbulent plot ends with a happy ending-not least for the young composer. Rossini's light-hearted and humorous style, with its “evergreen” arias, keeps on entertaining us - and has “survived” excellently all other reductions of “Figaro” in the musical theater.

Cast

• Conductor

  Alessandro Bonato

• Direction

  Fabio Cherstich

• Set Design

  Nicholas Bovey

• Costumes

  Arthur Arbesser

• Light design

  Marco Giusti

• Choral Conductor

  Luigi Azzolini

• Choir

  Ensemble Vocale Continuum

• Orchestra

  Orchestra Haydn di Bolzano e Trento

• Count D'Almaviva

  Pietro Adaini

• Don Bartolo

  Fabio Capitanucci

• Rosina

  Anna-Doris Capitelli

• Figaro

  Gurgen Baveyan

• Bass

  Nicola Ulivieri

• Berta

  Francesca Maionchi

• Fiorello

  Gianni Giuga

• Ambrogio

  Julien Lambert

• Sergeant

  Gianni Giuga

Source: https://www.haydn.it/