Soundtracks:
Citizen Kane
Clockwork Orange
Help
Una voce
Prizzi's Honour
Fish Called Wanda
Hopscotch
Breaking Away
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Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville)
 Kind:
Comic opera in two acts
Language: Italian
Location: Seville, Spain
Time: 18th century
Hits: La calunnia, Una voce poco fa, Largo al factotum
There is more than a hint of irony in the fact that one of the mosts
Successful operas of all times, "Barber of Seville", was a total
failure on its opening night. Not only did it fail - it did not win the
competition with the opera "Barber of Seville" by yet another
composer named Paisiella, an opera writer completely forgotten today, though
one of the "hottest" names in opera during that period (Napoleon
Bonaparte, they say, was very keen on his operas).
The night after the premiere catastrophe, Rossini did not even leave
his house to go to "Theatro Argentina", for the second performance
of the "Barber". He did not want to witness another fiasco. But
in the middle of the night, Rossini woke up to the sound of noise and callings
coming from the street. He looked out his window and saw... masses of the
people of Rome standing with torches in their hands, cheering for him and
his beloved work. It was a beautiful gesture of admitting one's mistake,
initiated by the inhabitants of the Italian capital, and an act of mass
apology to a great musician.
Rossini wrote very quickly, and his amazing talent gave him the reputation
of an industrial "production line" for good opera music. He wrote
"Barber of Seville" in only 13 days (!). The characters were
taken from Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro", however, the story
is different and the context bears no similarity. Is this is a soap opera
or what?
In the opera, Figaro, the barber, assists Count Almaviva win the heart
of Rosina, ward of Dr. Bartolo, who intends to marry her himself. The count
gets disguised twice, and wins Rosina's love. Figaro foils Bartolo and
his friends' plots, and Rosina marries, eventually, the count. All's well
that ends well.
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