Gioachino Rossini Il barbiere di Siviglia
Opera buffa in two acts. Libretto by Cesare Sterbini based on the play Le Barbier de Séville by Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais.
Intermission approx. 04:10 p.m.
End of opera approx. 05:00 p.m.
PREMIERE
- 07 June 2014, 15:00
- 09 June 2014, 15:00
Print programme (PDF)
Wolf-Dietrich Ludwig, Director
Günther Schneider-Siemssen, Sets
Marie-Luise Walek, Costumes
Puppeteers of the Salzburg Marionette Theatre: Philippe Nicolas Brunner, Pierre Droin, Vladimir Fediakov, Edouard Georges Funck, Heide Hölzl, Michaela Obermayr, Emanuel Paulus, Eva Wiener, Ursula Winzer, Puppeteers
Recording
Giuseppe Patanè, Conductor
William Matteuzzi, Count Almaviva
Enrico Fissore, Dr Bartolo
Cecilia Bartoli, Rosina
Leo Nucci, Figaro
Paata Burchuladze, Don Basilio
Gloria Banditelli, Berta
Michele Pertusi, Fiorello/An Officer
Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Comunale di Bologna
Rossini composed his seventeenth stage work at the age of 24 in an extremely short time. The first performance was a complete fiasco because he had ventured to compose music for a libretto that in Paisiello’s setting was already highly successful and popular. However, not long after the second performance the tide turned and the opera set out on a trail of victory throughout the whole of Europe. Even in the second half of the 19th century, when Rossini’s operas were slowly disappearing from the stage, not to reappear until the Rossini renaissance in the 20th century, Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) was one of a handful of his operas to remain constantly in the repertoire. It is hardly surprising as in the Barber Rossini created an overwhelming musical and theatrical world to a libretto in which the protagonists are precisely characterized. The rhythmic verve and melodic elegance of the music are captivating. Even Giuseppe Verdi, who repeatedly expressed his reservations about Rossini, considered the Barber to be “the most marvellous buffo opera ever written.”
The Salzburg Marionette Theatre has been an important part of cultural life in Salzburg for a hundred years and has been located in the halls of the former Hotel Mirabell since 1971. For the Salzburg Marionette Theatre’s 1971 production of the Barber, which will be revived especially for the Whitsun Festival, the recording used will of course be the one from 1989 on which Cecilia Bartoli sings Rosina conducted by Giuseppe Patanè.