ROSSINI : IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA

ROSSINI'S BARBER OF SEVILLE

Radio New Zealand Concert network
Sunday 5th of March 2017 at 6.05 - 9.15 pm
Sunday 24th of January 2016 at 6.05-8.05 pm
Sunday 4th of January 2015 at 7 - 9.20 pm
Sunday 17th of August 2014 at 6.03 -9 pm
Sunday 20th of January 2013 at 3.04 pm
Sunday 25th of March 2012 at 3 - 6.30 pm
Sunday 24th of February 2008 at 3pm
Sunday 22nd of April 2007 at 3pm

INTRODUCTION  
SYNOPSIS (see below)
RECORDINGS
LIBRETTO (Italian)
LIBRETTO (English)

ROSSINI: The Barber of Seville, an opera buffa in two acts based on Pierre Beaumarchais's French comedy. Count Almaviva enlists the aid of Seville's busy barber, Figaro, in his attempts to woo the vivacious Rosina away from her guardian Doctot Bartolo.
2017,
Rosina.......................... Pretty Yende
Lindoro/Count Almaviva.......... Dmitry Korchak
Figaro........................... Peter Mattei
Dr Bartolo.................... Maurizio Muraro
Don Basilio.................. Mikhail Petrenko
Fiorello......................... Tyler Duncan
Berta............................ Karolina Pilou
The sergeant................. Mark Schowalter
NY Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orch/Maurizio Benini

2016
Rosina............................... Isabel Leonard
Count Almaviva............... Taylor Stayton
Figaro............................... Elliot Madore
Dr Bartolo........................ Valeriano Lanchas
Don Basilio....................... Robert Pomakov
Berta................................. Holli Harrison
Fiorello............................. Yunpeng Wang
Ambrogio......................... Rob Besserer
Sergeant............................ Mark Schowalter
Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orch/Antony Walker (EBU)
 2015 
Count Almaviva............... Lawrence Brownlee
Bartolo.............................. Maurizio Muraro
Rosina............................... Isabel Leonard
Figaro............................... Christopher Maltman
Basilio............................... Paata Burchaladze
Berta................................. Claudia Waite
Fiorello............................. Yunpeng Wang
Ambrogio......................... Rob Besserer
Sergeant............................ Dennis Petersen
Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orch/Michele Mariotti
You will have heard about the fiasco on the first night in 1816 in Rome. And what caused all the trouble? Besides the vociferous objections and interjections by fanatical partisans of Paisiello (who had used the same story of Beaumarchais in 1782, though four other composers did likewise before Rossini), W.S. Gilbert has the line for it: "It was the cat".  Not only catcalls from the audience, but a real cat invading the stage to get a piece of the action.
    Rossini had to put this opera together in three weeks, so he did not have time to write a new overture for it. I remember my astonishment when I bought a recording of his Elisabetta, Queen of England, not a comic opera, and heard the familiar prelude to the Barber! He had also used it for his Aureliano in Palmyra. It didn't matter: Italian audiences chatter all the way through the overture, and they wouldn't notice. When I worked on the railways, an Italian workmate used to sing opera arias as we waited for the trains to come in at Sydney Central Station. He told me that they only shush one another when it is an opera of Giuseppe Verdi, and then they listen with rapt attention.
    This marvelous opera buffa comes round often; I have seen it in our town (set on board a ship, with some difficulty), and also the original play in French (which I had to study for my BA at Sydney University). One of the many video recordings has an Arab setting (a confusion with The Italian Girl in Algiers by the producer?!). 
    Figaro here, Figaro there, as the factotum of the city, and Count Almaviva in disguises, wooing Rosina (who will become a countess) and taking her away from her guardian, Doctor Bartolo. They all return in The Marriage of Figaro, together with Don Basilio, and Rosina's governess Berta, who becomes Marcellina in Mozart's opera; Figaro learns that Marcellina is his mother, that Dr Bartolo is his father, and he is their long-lost son Raffaello.
    As we complete our study of this opera, it is worth noting that it is yet another Commedia dell’arte piece. Rosina (both ingenuous and ingenious) corresponds to Colombina; Count Almaviva is her handsome sentimental lover, and I suppose he is Harlequin; Doctor Bartolo (avaricious and amorous) is the equivalent of Pantaloon; Figaro is the zanni (zany, from Gianni, Johny), the scheming servant who sets up the intrigue and ensures its happy outcome. (Donizetti’s Don Pasquale is an interesting variation on this theme.)
    Rossini was able to assemble this opera in a fortnight, because he took many of the components from previous works: Aureliano in Palmyra (about Queen Zenobia), and Elisabetta, Regina d’Inghilterra (about Queen Elizabeth I and her Robert). The overture now heard before The Barber of Seville was used as the introduction to the other two, too, too true.
    The young Count Almaviva first encountered Rosina in Madrid, and he fell in love with her. He followed her to Seville, where he hopes to rescue her from the  clutches of her possessive guardian, Doctor Bartolo (so that means she is his “ward”). He starts his campaign by pretending to be a student named Lindoro, and he serenades her; then he gains entry to her house as a drunken soldier; next he comes disguised as a clerical music master; finally he arrives as himself in the middle of the night to whisk her away.
According to convention, the action must fit into a single day.  Rossini’s 16th opera, the most performed and most loved.

CIVIL BARBER BARBARISM AND DR BARBARO
Gioacchino Rossini IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA (1816)
Rossini’s 16th opera, and most performed and most loved.
The Barber’s name is of course ... (he is not of the “I will say this only once” conspiratorial school; he says or sings it twenty times, count ‘em)....
The production to be viewed comes from Paris, and the action takes place in Seville (in New Zealand we have seen it set on a ship, with difficult success; at least there was a ladder available for the final elopement scene). Here the stage setting is unusual: instead of costuming the characters in the clothing of Spaniards, they are dressed like the other people who have lived in the Iberian Peninsula (and I do not mean the Romans, or the ancient Celts, or the Portuguese, or the Basques).
ACT 1
Comedy Overture (also used for his dramatic opera Queen Elizabeth of England!)
[1.1] Piano, pianissimo (Softly, softly)
Count Almaviva, prowling under the alias Lindoro, has set his heart and mind on wooing Rosina, the lovely ward of Doctor Bartolo, and he has brought an orchestra to her dwelling, to sing her a dawn serenade (by definition an evening song, though it is not really from sera “evening” but from serena “calm”). He has never met her (he has loved her from afar) and hopes to encounter her at her window. The musicians are urged to approach with cat-like tread (as W. S. Gilbert would say it). Best not to mention cats, as one invaded the stage at the first performance and it was ruined by cat-calls and catastrophic chaos.
[1.2] Ecco ridente in cielo (See dawn laughing in the sky) Cavatina [Count Almaviva]
[1.3] After the song, money is handed over, but the players are so effusive with their thanks that the peace is disturbed, and the neighbours are likely to come to see what all the fuss is about.
The wooer wants her to be his countess, but she has not appeared at the window.
[1.4] Largo al factotum (Make way for the do-all) Cavatina [Figaro]
La la la le ra, la la re la, la ran la le ra, la ran la la. (That is the bar-bar-ism of the heading above)
Enter Figaro, touting for business. A tongue-twisting patter song.
The count recognizes his former valet, and eventually enlists him (with a shilling or more) in his campaign; through Figaro he will gain entry to the house as a drunken soldier.
[1.5]  Se il mio nome saper voi bramate (If you wish to know my name) Song  [Count]
This song elicits a response from Rosina.
[1.6] All’ idea di quel metallo (At the idea of that metal)  Duet
The thought of being paid in gold turns Figaro’s mind into a volcano of inventiveness.
[1.7] Una voce poco fa qui nel cor mi risuonó   Cavatina [Rosina]
She is very determined to win Lindoro (vinceró, she declares, as in Nessun dorma), and (to the music that had earlier accompanied Elizabeth’s joy at the return of Leicester) she declares that she will devise 300 tricks (tre cento trappole) to let her escape from her guardian. Figaro is the barber to the master of the house, and when he comes in, Rosina has written a letter to be taken to Lindoro, but she can not hand it over yet. Bartolo returns from his visit to the notary. [He is displeased, because Figaro has given wrong medicines to his servants: a sleeping-draught to Ambrogio the valet, and sneezing powder to Berta the housekeeper; he can not get them to tell what Figaro and Rosina have been talking about.] He remonstrates with Rosina, and she withdraws; the more he loves her, the more she disdains him, he says. Basilio arrives to warn Bartolo that Count Almaviva is in the neighbourhood; he may be the mysterious suitor.
[1.8]  La calunnia (Slander) Aria [Basilio]
Calumny starts as a whisper, and (passing through a magnificent Rossini crescendo) ends as an explosive cannon shot, and the poor slandered person suffers public flagellation.
But Bartolo wants a marriage contract drawn up immediately, so that he can wed his ward.
[1.9] Dunque io son (So I am the one?) Duet
Rosina learns from Figaro that she is Lindoro’s chosen, and he will arrive soon.
[1.10] A un dottor della mia sorte   Aria [Bartolo]
Does she dare to tell lies to a doctor of his importance, when he asks her about Figaro and the possibility that she has written a letter to someone?
[1.11] A drunken soldier barges into the house, seeking “Dr Barbaro” and brandishing a billeting order; Dr Bartolo in turn produces an exemption document, but the intruder brushes it aside; he passes a letter to Rosina, and when her guardian demands to see it she hands him a washing-list. The situation becomes heated, the Count draws his sword, and Figaro, Basilio, and Berta get involved. The noise causes the police (la forza) to intervene. Bartolo is shocked and dumbfounded to find that his case is rejected (Count  Almaviva has identified himself to the police). The company performs a Rossinian crescendo (not rises to a crescendo) and the act ends resoundingly.

ACT 2
In the evening, the Count arrives in his next costume (he should be in clerical garb, as an abbé, but everyone is in Moorish dress here!).  He claims to be Don Alonso, a pupil of Don Basilio, who is ill and can not give Rosina her music lesson, but young Alonso will. He gives Rosina’s love letter to Bartolo, saying that he stole it from Count Almaviva’s lodgings; Bartolo could show it to her as taken from another woman and as proof of his infidelity. In the ensuing confusion, Figaro gains the key to the balcony door, ready for the elopement (he smashes crockery in the process). Great consternation when Basilio turns up, but a purse convinces him he is unwell and should go home to bed. Figaro has finally got Bartolo to have a shave (it is not going to happen, as Bartolo has a big black beard, and he is not going to part with it; just a trim, perhaps). The Count informs Rosina about the escape plans, but he uses the word travestimento (disguise); Bartolo hears it and breaks up the party. Berta has an interlude song about the madness that love causes and the probability that she will die an old maid. Bartolo shows the letter to Rosina, and persuades her that she has been duped, and will become a mere paramour of the wicked Count Almaviva; she accepts her guardian’s proposal immediately. A storm comes up; she [unscriptedly] rearranges the furniture in her rage. The wooer arrives, is rejected, then accepted, and when the notary comes he marries them. Bartolo is resigned to the outcome.

2014
Rosina.............................. Laura Polverelli
Dr Bartolo........................ Paolo Bordogna
Almaviva.......................... Antonino Siragusa
Figaro............................... Vito Priante
Fiorello............................. Ryan Milstead
Don Basilio...................... Nicola Ulivieri
Berta................................. Giovanna Donadini
Ambrogio......................... Antonio Sarasso
Teatro Regio Chorus & Orch/Alessandro de Marchi
(recorded in the Teatro Regio, Turin)
REVIEW (Italian) with pictures
2013
Rosina.......................... Isabel Leonard
Dr Bartolo.................... John Del Carlo
Count Almaviva.......... Alek Shrader
Figaro........................... Rodion Pogossov
Fiorello......................... Luthando Qave
Don Basilio.................. Jordan Bisch
Berta............................ Claudia Waite
Sergeant....................... Mark Schowalter
Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orch/Yves Abel
(This is an abridged version in English)
2012
Rosina……………….. Diana Damrau
Doctor Bartolo………. John Del Carlo
Count Almaviva……... Colin Lee
Figaro………………... Rodion Pogossov
Fiorello………………. Edward Parks
Don Basilio………….. Ferruccio Furlanetto
Berta…………………. Claudia Waite
Ambrogio……………. Rob Besserer
Sergeant……………... Mark Schowalter
Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orch/Maurizio Benini
 2008
Rosina........................... Elina Garanca
Count Almaviva............. José Manuel Zapata
Figaro........................... Franco Vassallo
Dr Bartolo..................... Bruno Praticò
Don Basilio................... Peter Rose
Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orch/Frédéric Chaslin
Intermission quiz with Roberta Peters

COMPOSER
BACKGROUND
UNDERGROUND
CHARACTERS
SYNOPSIS
STORYLINE
ANALYSIS