Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Modest Mussorgsky
Giacomo Puccini
César Cui. Igor Stravinsky
Gioachino Rossini
Francesco Cilea
Richard Wagner
Richard Strauss
Gaetano Donizetti
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Georges Bizet
Gioacchino Rossini
Alexander Ostrovsky, music by Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Umberto Giordano
Richard Strauss
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Ruggero Leoncavallo
Andrei Rubtsov
Dimitry Rostovsky
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Alexei Verstovsky
Giuseppe Verdi
Anton Rubinstein
Benjamin Britten. Camille Saint-Saëns
Mieczysław Weinberg
Sergei Banevich
Modest Mussorgsky
Grigory Frid. Udo Zimmermann
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Georg Philipp Telemann
Sergei Prokofiev
Giuseppe Verdi
Sergei Prokofiev. Maurice Ravel
Dmitry Shostakovich
Tatiana Kamysheva
Georges Bizet
Giacomo Puccini
Jacques Offenbach
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Dmitry Shostakovich
Hector Berlioz
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Verdi considered Il Barbiere “the best of the existing comic operas” and Beethoven implored the author at their meeting: “Most importantly, write more Il Barbieres! This exact opera by “the Swan of Pesaro”, the name given to Gioachino Rossini during his lifetime, became the most popular, in Russia too.
Meanwhile, its first performance turned out to be one of the most infamously strange events in the history of music: the public’s reception was less than modest. The premiere took place at the Teatro Argentina in Rome on the 20th of February 1816. Its negative reception was due in large part to the admirers of Giovanni Paisiello, the author of a great number of operas, including the work called Il Barbiere di Siviglia. There was a hum of voices in the audience, mixed with loud deliberate coughing, that the composer could not bear: he left the theatre before the end of the performance. But Rossini had tried to be respectful towards his elder colleague and changed the name of the opera. Originally, his Il Barbiere was called Almaviva, ossia l’inutile precauzione. In spite of that, the opera quickly reverted to the name by which it was destined to win the admiration of music lovers from around the world.
Premiered on 3 November 2018.
Presented with one interval.
Libretto by Cesare Sterbini after the comedy of the same name by Pierre-Augustin de Beaumarchais
Sunday, 14:00
Saturday, 19:00
Friday, 19:00
Thursday, 19:00
Wednesday, 19:00
Sunday, 14:00
Saturday, 19:00
Friday, 19:00
Thursday, 19:00
Wednesday, 19:00
Sunday, 14:00
Saturday, 19:00
Friday, 19:00
Thursday, 19:00
Wednesday, 19:00
Sunday, 14:00
Saturday, 19:00
Friday, 19:00
Thursday, 19:00
Wednesday, 19:00
Sunday, 14:00
Saturday, 19:00
Friday, 19:00
Thursday, 19:00
Sunday, 14:00
Saturday, 19:00
Saturday, 12:00
Act I
Seville. Night. Count Almaviva comes to the house of Doctor Bartolo and serenades Rosina, whom Bartolo keeps confined to the house. Figaro an old friend of Count, who knows all the town’s secrets and scandals, explains to Almaviva that Rosina is Bartolo’s ward, not his daughter, and that the doctor intends to marry her. Figaro devises a plan: the count will disguise himself as a drunken soldier with orders to be quartered at Bartolo’s house so that he may gain access to Rosina. Almaviva is excited and Figaro looks forward to a nice cash pay-off.
Rosina reflects on the voice that has enchanted her and resolves to use her considerable wiles to meet the man it belongs to — as Almaviva has led her to believe, a poor student named Lindoro. Bartolo appears with Rosina’s music master, Don Basilio. Basilio warns Bartolo that Count Almaviva, who has made known his admiration for Rosina, has been seen in Seville. Bartolo decides to marry Rosina immediately. Basilio suggests slander as the most effective means of getting rid of Almaviva. Figaro, who has overheard the plot, warns Rosina and promises to deliver a note from her to Lindoro. Bartolo suspects that Rosina has indeed written a letter, but she outwits him at every turn. Bartolo warns her not to trifle with him.