Il barbiere di Siviglia / The Barber of Seville

Count Almaviva loves Rosina and tries to get close to her disguised as a student. However, he has to find a way to evade Bartolo, Rosina’s miserly guardian, who himself intends to marry his ward. Here the chatty barber Figaro manages to cause sufficient chaos through his knowledge of all the city’s intrigues to enable the clandestine marriage of Almaviva and Rosina. Yet Bartolo doesn’t give up so easily … Rossini’s immortal »Il barbiere di Siviglia«, based on the first part of the comedic trilogy by Beaumarchais, tells the story leading up to the events in Mozart’s »Le nozze di Figaro«. Ostensibly a farce, Beaumarchais managed to insert his own criticism of the doomed Ancien Régime: Figaro, whose name is derived from »fils Caron« and thus represents Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais himself, becomes, in his impertinence and ready wit, the dramatist’s alter ego. In Rossini’s version the barber is gifted a sparkling musicality, which exerts a magical fascination on listeners. He introduces himself with an aria of astonishing range and astronomical speed, ushers us into the masquerade and doesn’t let the audience escape the chicaneries until the very end: »Bravo, Figaro!«

Conductor: Jonathan Darlington