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THE BARBER OF SEVILLE

Gioacchino Rossini

When Gioacchino Rossini in 1816 decided to write an opera based on the very successful comedy by Pierra Augustina Carona de Beaumarchaise, The barber of Seville, his friends tried to discourage him, becuase at the time on Italian opera stages there was already a very successful opera on the same theme by Giovanni Paisiell, which first rang out on 15th September 1782 in St. Petersburg, and spread out to opera stages throughout Europe. Rossini was, of course, taken by the theme and was not persuaded to abandon his aim. The barber of Seville was written very quickly and easily within a mere month (some sources say that he wrote this opera within 20 days). The premiére, on 20th February 1816 in Rome, belongs among the greatest fiascoes of opera history, as that evening the performance was accompanied by bad luck (a singer was indisposed, a guitar was out of tune, a cat on the stage). Soon the public came to appreciate the quality of this work, which is one of the greatest operas of literature as a whole. Opera visitors already know this story well, of the clever Seville barber, Figaro, who helps the Count Almaviva gain the foster child of Doctor Bartolo Rosina. The continuation of the story was presented in previous seasons in Mozart´s immortal The mariage of Figaro svatbě jsme hráli v uplynulých sezonách.

The last Pilsen study had its premiére on 26th May 1991. We present the opera in a Czech translated version.

Premiére 25. October 2008 in the Great theatre.