The Barber of Seville (Paisiello)
Il barbiere di Siviglia | |
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Le Barbier de Séville by Pierre Beaumarchais | |
Premiere | 26 September 1782 Imperial Court, Saint Petersburg |
Il barbiere di Siviglia, ovvero La precauzione inutile (The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution) is a comic opera by Giovanni Paisiello to a libretto by Giuseppe Petrosellini, even though his name is not identified on the score's title page.
The opera was first performed on 26 September [
The story essentially follows the original Beaumarchais play, and in some places directly translates songs and dialogue. The plots of the Paisiello and the Rossini versions very closely resemble each other, with subtle differences.[2]
Performance history
Several musical adaptations of Il barbiere di Siviglia predated the version by Paisiello, but Paisiello's comic opera was the first to achieve widespread success. It was subsequently staged in several cities in the years immediately following its premiere, including
In 1789,
The opera proved to be Paisiello's biggest success. Even after the tumultuous 1816 premiere of Rossini's own version, Paisiello's version continued to be more popular by comparison. With time, however, that situation changed. As Rossini's version gained in popularity, Paisiello's diminished in parallel, to the point where it fell from the repertoire.
Paisiello's version did receive revival in later years, including Paris (1868); Turin (1875); Berlin (1913); and Monte Carlo (1918). In 2005 Bampton Classical Opera gave performances of Paisiello's opera in English.
Roles
Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, 26 September 1782 |
---|---|---|
Count Almaviva | tenor | Guglielmo Jermolli |
Rosina | soprano | Anna Davia de Bernucci |
Don Bartolo | buffo | Baldassare Marchetti |
Figaro | baritone | Giovanni Battista Brocchi |
Don Basilio | bass | Luigi Pagnanelli |
Giovinetto ('Youth', Bartolo's aged servant) | tenor | |
Svegliato ('Vigilance', a sleepy servant) | bass | |
Notary | bass | |
Warden | tenor | |
Quartets of Alguazili (constables) and servants
|
Recordings
- Mercury SR 2-9010: Graziella Sciutti, Nicola Monti, Rolando Panerai, Renato Capecchi, Mario Petri; Virtuosi di Roma; Renato Fasano, conductor. Recorded at the Teatro Grande di Brescia, August 6-15, 1959[6]
- Hungaroton SLPD MZS-27: Dénes Gulyas, Krisztina Laki, József Gregor, István Gáti, Sándor Sólyom-Nagy, Csaba Réti, Miklós Mersei, Gábor Vághelyi, Attila Fülöp; Hungarian State Orchestra; Ádám Fischer, conductor. 1985[2]
- Frequenz 3-DAE: Lella Cuberli, Piero Visconti, Alessandro Corbelli, Enzo Dara, Delfo Menicucci; Romanian Philharmonic Orchestra; Bruno Campanella, conductor. Recorded at the Festival della Valle d’Itria, Martina Franca, July 22-26, 1982
- Dynamic S417: Stefano Consolini, Pietro Spagnoli, Anna Maria Dell'Oste, Angelo Nardinocchi, Luciano Di Pasquale; Orchestra del Teatro Lirico G.Verdi di Trieste; Giuliano Carella, conductor. 2000
In popular culture
- The Count's period film Barry Lyndon (1975).[7]
References
- ^ a b Loewenberg, Alfred , "Paisiello's and Rossini's Barbiere di Siviglia" (April 1939). Music & Letters, 20 (2): pp. 157–167.
- ^ . Retrieved 2007-10-14.
- ^ In Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm Großmann's translation. See Grove.
- ^ Grove. It is not clear how the compression was accomplished. None of the added numbers are in the 1953 Ricordi reprint, which divides two acts into two halves each: "Atto primo-parte prima...Atto secondo-parte quarta"
- Mozarteum
- . Retrieved 2007-10-14.
- ISBN 978-0810885646. The piece can be listened to on YouTube.
Further reading
- ISBN 0-14-029312-4
- Lazarevich, Gordana, Barbiere di Siviglia, Il (i), in ISBN 978-0-19-522186-2