Rossini's Barber (Opera) 1/3

The Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution (Il barbiere di Siviglia, ossia L'inutile precauzione) is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's comedy Le Barbier de Séville (1775), which was originally an opéra comique, or a mixture of spoken play with music. The première (under the title Almaviva, or the Futile Precaution) took place on 20 February 1816, at the Teatro Argentina, Rome.

Rossini's Barber has proven to be one of the greatest masterpieces of comedy within music, and has been described as the opera buffa of all "opere buffe". Even after two hundred years, its popularity on the modern opera stage attests to that greatness.
Rossini's opera recounts the first of the plays from the Figaro trilogy, by French playwright Pierre Beaumarchais, while Mozart's opera Le nozze di Figaro, composed 30 years earlier in 1786, is based on the second part of the Beaumarchais trilogy. The original Beaumarchais version was first performed in 1775, in Paris at the Comédie-Française at the Tuileries Palace.
Rossini was well known for being remarkably productive, completing an average of two operas per year for 19 years, and in some years writing as many as four. Musicologists believe that, true to form, the music for Il Barbiere di Siviglia was composed in just under three weeks,[6] although some of the themes in the famous overture were actually borrowed from two earlier Rossini operas, Aureliano in Palmira and Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra.

[Roles]
- Maria Callas : Rosina, Dr. Bartolo's ward
- Fritz Ollendorff : Doctor Bartolo, Rosina's guardian
- Luigi Alva : Count Almaviva, a local nobleman
- Tito Gobbi : Figaro, a factotum, the Barber of Seville
- Mario Carlin : Fiorello, a servant to the Count
- Nicola Zaccaria : Don Basilio, a music teacher
- Gabriella Carturan : Berta, a servant to Dr. Bartolo
- Ambrogio, a servant to Dr. Bartolo
* Alceo Galliera (conductor)
* Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus
* Kingsway Hall, London

1. App. 1 : Ouverture, Act 1 Scene 1
- Ouverture [6:41]
- ACT ONE Scene 1 Piano, pianissimo, senza parlar [2:55]
- Ecco ridente in cielo [4:07]
- Ehi, Fiorello? [1:09]
- Mille grazie, mio signore [1:57]
- Gente indiscreta! [0:33]
- la ran la le ra, la ran la la, Largo al factotum [4:41]
- Ah, che bella vita! [3:45]
- Se il mio nome saper voi bramate [2:56]
- Oh, cielo! [1:00]
- All'idea di quel metallo [8:08]

2. App. 2 : Act 1 Scene 2
- Una voce poco fa [6:18]
- Si, si, la vincero [1:19]
- Ah, disgraziota Figaro! [0:54]
- Ah! Barbiere d'inferno [1:52]
- La calunnia e un venticello [3:39]
- Ah! Che ne dite? [0:33]
- Ma bravi! Ma benone! [2:20]
- Dunque io son [5:07]
- Ora mi sento meglio [1:23]
- A un dottor della mia sorte [4:57]
- Finora in questa camera [0:30]
- Ehi, di casa, buona gente [8:32]
- Che cosa accadde, signori miei [3:40]
- Fredda ed immoile [3:02]
- Ma signore [4:35]

3. App. 3 : ACT TWO
- Ma vedi il mio destino! [0:46]
- Pace e gioia sia con voi [2:28]
- Insomma, mio signore, chi e lei? [2:20]
- Venite, signorina [0:42]
- Contro un cor che accende amore [5:54]
- Bella voce! Bravissima! [0:35]
- Quando mi sei vicina [0:56]
- Bravo, signor barbiere, ma bravo! [2:43]
- Don Basilio! [9:19]
- Che vecchio sospettoso! [0:28]
- Il vecchiotto cerca moglie [3:20]
- Temporale (Thunderstorm) [2:49]
- Alfine eccoci qua [1:02]
- Ah, qual colpo inaspettato! [5:47]
- Ah, disgraziati noi! [1:30]
- Insomma io ho tutti i torti [0:44]
- Di si felice innesto [2:04]

% Quotation : Wikipedia "The Barber of Seville"