The Barber of Seville Program

TEATRO LIRICO D’EUROPA

IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA (THE BARBER OF SEVILLE)

by Gioachino Rossini

Libretto by Cesare Sterbini after the comedy LE BARBIER DE SEVILLE by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR/STAGE DIRECTOR

CONDUCTOR/HARPSICHORD

CHORUS MASTER

SETS/COSTUMES/LIGHTS

Giorgio Lalov

Adrian Sylveen

Rider Foster

Giorgio Lalov

CHARACTERS

FIGARO

ROSINA

COUNT ALMAVIVA

DR. BARTOLO

DON BASILIO

FIORELLO

BERTA

Carlos Alberto López

Mayela López

Fabián Robles

Carlos Conde González

Gregory Sheppard

Nathan Strock

Christina Lamberti

Chorus of peasants, soldiers

Time and place: Seville, Spain, 18th century

THERE WILL BE A 20-MINUTE INTERMISSION AFTER THE FIRST 45 MINUTES OF ACT I

AND A 5-MINUTE SCENERY CHANGE AT THE END OF ACT I

CARLOS ALBERTO LÓPEZ (FIGARO)

Mr. Lopez was born and studied in Guadalajara, Jalisco. Considered one of the best baritones of his generation, “with a beautiful legato and innate musicality”, Carlos López has performed at the most important venues in Mexico. He has been the winner of various national competitions including: ‘CARLO MORELLI’ (Fine Arts, CDMX 2018), ‘ÓPERA PALCCO’ (Guadalajara 2017),‘ÓPERA DE SAN MIGUEL’ (San Miguel de Allende 2017), ‘FANNY ANITÚA’ (Durango 2014) and ‘SINALOA’ (Culiacán 2014). In 2015 he was one of the two Mexicans selected to participate in the famous international competition NEUE STIMMEN, in Gütersloh, Germany. In 2016 he was selected for the Young Artist Program ‘Jette Parker’ Final audition for the ROYAL OPERA HOUSE in London, UK. Winner of the award for the best foreign singer in the contest ‘Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques’ in 2017 in Montreal, Canada.

In April 2018 he sang the PETITE MESSE SOLENNELLE (G. Rossini) with “The Choral Society of the Hamptons”, in New York City. He has participated in Master Classes with prestigious international artists and teachers including Sumi Jo, Nelly Miricioiu, David Gowland, Carlos Conde, Jack Livigni, Javier Camarena, Enrique Patrón de Rueda, Ramón Vargas and Francisco Araiza, and others. He was invited to join the ESTUDIO DE ÓPERA DE BELLAS ARTES in Mexico City, under the mentorship of tenor Ramón Varags, in 2015 and 2016. He is currently a member of the Opera Studio Beckmann, belonging to the Fundación JOSÉ CUERVO, in Tequila, Jalisco where he has participated in various productions of opera, zarzuela, opera galas and concerts, including CARMEN by Bizet (Zarzuela version, produced by maestro Polo Falcón), CARMINA BURANA by Carl Orff and LA BOHÈME by Giacomo Puccini.

Recently he was invited by the Guatemalan Opera, directed by the tenor Mario Chang to interpret the role of the Marqués de Obigny in Verdi’s LA TRAVIATA in Guatemala City. He has also performed with the Xalapa Symphony

Orchestra, singing as the soloist in Beethoven’s MISSA SOLEMNIS in Xalapa, Veracruz and with THE ONTARIO PHILARMONIC at a CHRISTMAS GALA in Oshawa, Canada. He played the role of PING in the opera TURANDOT and TONIO in the opera I PAGLIACCI in the 2018 Season of the OFJ, at the Degollado Theater, in Guadalajara, Jalisco. He is making his debut with Teatro Lirico D’Europa in winter 2022 as Figaro in Rossini’s IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA.

MAYELA LÓPEZ (ROSINA)

Principal mezzo-soprano in the 2022/2023 season of the MOS México Opera Studio under the direction of R. Piñero and A. Miyaki. Winner of the Met Laffont competition of the Metropolitan Opera of New York, Mexico district. Her major roles include L’ENFANT ET LES SORTILÈGES, AMADEUS, PEER

GYNT, Flora Bervoix in Verdi’s LA TRAVIATA, Cherubino in LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, PUSS IN BOOTS and LUISA FERNANDA, Dorabella in Mozart’s COSì FAN TUTTE and the title role of Bizet’s CARMEN. Internationally she was a soloist in Karl Jenkins’ THE ARMED MAN in Ireland with The Ulster Orchestra, under the direction of renowned BBC London conductor Neil Ferris, at Loyola University New Orleans and at Summerfest in PETITE MESSE SOLENNELLE, Wagner’s WESENDONCK LIEDER, and Pergolesi’s STABAT Milwaukee, USA.

She has worked with prominent directors such as Iván López Reynoso, Teresa Rodríguez, Jorge Cozatl, Patrón de Rueda and Vladimir Gómez. She was a regular soloist member of Opera studio Beckmann in the 2019/2021 season, under the direction of Benito Rodríguez and the Belcanto institute of San Miguel 2022. She has worked with vocal coaches Vladimir Bañuelos, Carlos Conde and Ted Taylor. She has taken master classes with distinguished teachers such as Elīna Garanča, Nancy Fabiola Herrera, Verónica Villaroel, David Gowland, Michael Sylvester, among others. Her concert repertoire includes Mozart’s REQUIEM, Beethoven’s NINTH SYMPHONY, Rossini’s STABAT MATER and MATER.

FABIÁN ROBLES (COUNT ALMAVIVA)

Tenor Fabián Robles has been hailed by critics as having “a voice of uncommon liquidity and resonance, with a sure way with coloratura” (The Financial Times, London) and described as having a “top range with ring and flexibility... with real squillo in his tone, spinning a belcanto line elegantly” (South Florida Classical Review), tenor Fabian Robles is quickly establishing himself in the belcanto and lyric tenor repertoire. Fabian started 2021 with a series of concerts in his native Puerto Rico that included a varied repertoire ranging from opera, zarzuela, musicals and romantic popular standards. He was then part of the cast in the zarzuela LOS GAVILANE for Culturarte de Puerto Rico alongside internationallyacclaimed soprano Ana Maria Martínez and concluded the year with a series of concerts honoring Latin-superstar singer Luis Miguel with rave audiences and sold-out venues. Year 2022 will start as the male lead in the Zarzuela/Spanish operetta LOS CLAVELES, and then continue with a series of concerts and performances of the operas RIGOLETTO & L BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA in the USA. Before the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic struck, Robles was the 2020, 1st-place winner of the Mozart Division at the Lyra International Vocal Competition. In 2019 he was part of a stellar cast that included superstar tenor Roberto Alagna, soprano Aleksandra Kurzak and baritone Roberto Frontali in Leoncavallo’s I PAGLIACCI for Culturarte Puerto Rico. Robles returned to Palmetto Opera with an Operetta Gala and reprised IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA with Teatro Lirico D’Europa for Opera New Hampshire, and various concerts including A TRIBUTE TO PAVAROTTI with Teatro Lirico D’Europa at the Newberry Opera House. In previous years, Fabian returned with Teatro Lirico D’Europa to Opera New Hampshire for Alfredo in LA TRAVIATA and Miami Lyric Opera for Rossini’s IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA, after singing to great acclaim the tenor lead in the Spanish opera MARINA. After his debut as Rodolfo in LA BOHÈME in New York, Robles was invited to the Cairo Opera House in Egypt and many cities in the USA with Teatro Lirico D’Europa, which also included Edgardo in

LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR and Nemorino in L’ELISIR D’AMORE. Other debuts include LA CENERENTOLA at the prestigious Aspen Music Festival, LES PECHEURS DE PERLES and the title role in Rossini’s OTELLO at Houston’s Opera in the Heights.

In his native Puerto Rico, Fabian was featured on tour with the Philharmonic Orchestra and a Gala re-opening the iconic “Teatro La Perla”. A revelation in the title role of EL BARBERILLO DE LAVAPIÉS, he was also part of Ballet Concierto’s 25TH ANNIVERSARY GALA, singing the difficult tenor part of Orff’s CARMINA BURANA, reprised later with the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra in Alaska. Career highlights include a Zarzuela Gala at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, semi-finalist in PLACIDO DOMINGO’S OPERALIA 2007 in Paris and the “Francisco Viñas Competition 2008” in Barcelona.

Awards include winner of the Concerto Vocal Competition at the Aspen Music Festival, Honorary Award by the Senate and “Tenor of the Year Award” by UNESCO. A fourtime regional winner at the MET National Auditions, Robles received the “Best Male Performer”and “Audience Prize”awards. His accomplishments also extend to the recital and concert platform and have served as the voice in various TV commercials; performed the National Anthems from sports events to official Government ceremonies in the presence of important dignitaries. Mr. Robles graduated from the University of Puerto Rico with degrees in Biology, Pharmacy and Music.

GREGORY SHEPPARD (DON BASILIO)

Gregory Sheppard, bass-baritone has been heard in opera, concert and recital in the United States, Canada and Europe. He has appeared in leading roles with Virginia Opera, Central City Opera, Syracuse Opera, NYC Opera, Connecticut Opera, Orlando Opera, Tri-Cities Opera, Opera Ebony, Lake George Opera, Nickel City Opera, Opera Memphis, Chattanooga Opera in roles that include Figaro in LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, Basilio in IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA, Colline in

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LA BOHEME, Samorone in BEATRICE ET BENEDICT, Leporello and Commendatore in DON GIOVANNI, Don Alfonso in COSI FAN TUTTE, Raimondo in LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR, Ramfis in AIDA and the leading bass-baritone roles in THE TALES OF HOFFMAN.

His orchestral appearances include Verdi’s MESSE DI REQUIEM with the Masterworks Chorale and Orchestra, Mozart REQUIEM MASS with the Bowdoin Festival Orchestra, Beethoven’s NINTH SYMPHONY with the Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra and appearances with Sioux City Symphony, Denver Symphony, Chattanooga Symphony, Illinois Chamber Orchestra, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, New Haven Symphony, Little Orchestra Society among others. Sheppard has also appeared at Savonlinna Festival (Finland), Vienna Festival, with Orchestra Solisti di Roma and with the Biennale Festspiel in Munich in the premier of A Scourge of Hyacinth.

Mr. Sheppard holds degrees from Syracuse University and New York University and received further training as apprentice artist at Sarasota Opera, Central City Opera and Glimmerglass Opera. He has won many awards including Metropolitan Opera National Council Finalist and Study Grant recipient, Syracuse Opera Artist of the Year, Sullivan Foundation Grant, Friday Music Clubs Young Artist Award, Syracuse University Faculty Award, Jan Peerce Scholarship. Mr. Sheppard is often selected by composers to premier new works. Most recently Pushed Aside on the life of Elizabeth Gage by Persis Vehar and Libba: Here This Day by Mark A. Oliveri on the life of Libba Cotten with Society New Music.

He also was heard recently in and premiered NO COWARDS IN OUR BAND on PBS a new work on the life of Frederick Douglass by Anthony Knight. Mr. Sheppard appears this season with Festival of Music as soloist in Bach’s Magnificat, recital for Society New Music, recital at the Century Club, concert with Onondaga Historical Society to celebrate the history 1864 of The National Convention of Colored Men, Per questa bella mano and

Highway 1, USA with Festival of Music. Mr. Sheppard is Doctoral Lecturer in Music for CUNY in New York City and has taught on the faculties of New York University, Columbia University and The New School.

CARLOS CONDE GONZÁLEZ (DR. BARTOLO)

Acclaimed by the press as “a performer of great intelligence, versatility and warmth”, international singer and maestro Carlos Conde González, is an actor and musician with a thirty-year career as a performer of the operatic genre. Along with luminaries such as Luciano Pavarotti and Plácido Domingo, Carlos has performed on many of the world’s most important stages, including the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and New York’s Carnegie Hall. Known for his interpretations of Italian roles; his favourite Bartolo in The Barber of Seville is a role he has performed more than 400 times in 35 different productions. In addition to his training in opera at the Juilliard School’s Opera Center, Carlos studied drama at the University of Puerto Rico, and was awarded his Doctorate of Musical Arts from the State University of New York.

Dr. Conde is a recognized professor of vocal pedagogy with emphasis on Neuro Singing and the Old Italian School of Singing. His career as an educator has taken him through academic platforms in Japan, England (Guildhall School of Music and the Jette Parker Apprentice Program at the Royal Opera Covent Garden), Switzerland (Basel Opera Studio), Sri Lanka (University for the Performing Arts/Colombo), Israel (Tel Aviv University and the Israel Vocal Arts Institute), Malta (University of Malta), and in the United States: Juilliard, Mannes, Texas Tech, Miami University, Rutgers and the City University of New York. Currently Dr. Conde is the director of CC- Performing Arts, an artistic and vocal consulting agency with presence in Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Japan, Austria, Italy, Germany, England, and the United States.

CHRISTINA LAMBERTI (BERTA)

Mezzo Soprano Christina Lamberti has garnered critical acclaim throughout her

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successful careeras an opera singer, but she was looking for the exact fach for her unique sound. Now fully realized as a dramatic mezzosoprano, Christina is primed for roles such as Eboli (DON CARLO), Santuzza (CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA), Amneris (AIDA), and the title role in CARMEN. Recognized internationally, Christina has been hailed for a sound that ranges from “a full- throated performance, riveting in sound and fury” to “such delicate nuances that only the greatest masters can portray.” She has performed for some of the world’s leading organizations, including San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Delaware, Buffalo Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Estonian National Opera, Slovenian National Theatre, Singapore Lyric Opera, Singapore Symphony, Teatro Comunale di Atri, and Stattheater Regensburg, where she enjoyed three seasons as the resident leading soprano.

In her former repertoire, Ms. Lamberti excelled as the title roles of MANON LESCAUT and NORMA, Leonore (IL TROVATORE), Desdemona (OTELLO), Amelia (UN BALLO IN MASCHERA), Donna Elvira (DON GIOVANNI), and Vitellia (LA CLEMENZA DI TITO). Her initial operatic experience began as an undergraduate chorister at Westminster Choir College participating in the Philadelphia Orchestra’s concert productions of NABUCCO and TOSCA, conducted by Maestro Riccardo Muti. She continued her studies at Duquesne University and participated in the EPCASO program in Italy, studying the Bellini and Donizetti repertoire under the rigorous tutelage of Enza Ferrari and Claudia Pinza (daughter of famed basso Ezio Pinza).

Christina participated in San Francisco Opera as a young artist in the Merola Opera Program. Other Young Artist Programs include Opera Theatre of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Opera, and The Academy of Vocal Arts, Philadelphia.

Christina began a long-standing relationship with San Francisco Opera as a young artist in the Merola Opera Program. She studied early Romantic bel canto repertoire with the late Dame Joan Sutherland. Most recently she has

been touring Denmark with her husband, classical guitarist Lars Frandsen. Recent engagements include the rôle of Maddalena in multiple performances of Verdi’s RIGOLETTO at major USA venues with Teatro Lirico, D’Europa. Winter 2024 will find Christina on tour with Teatro Lirico again as Berta in IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA.

NATHAN STROCK (FIORELLO)

Nathan Strock (bass-baritone) is a native of North Carolina currently living in Potsdam, New York. Strock’s opera career began with in North Carolina with Opera Wilmington, where he played Count Ceprano in Verdi’s RIGOLETTO, Don Alfonso in Mozart’s COSÍ FAN TUTTE, Marchese in LA TRAVIATA, and Leporello in OW’s production of Mozart’s DON GIOVANNI with the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra. During his graduate degree, Strock performed the roles of Billy Bigelow in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s CAROUSEL, Mr. Gobineau in Menotti’s THE MEDIUM, and Cascart in Leoncavallo’s ZAZÀ. Strock holds a M.M. in Music Performance from SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music (‘22) and a B.M. in Vocal Performance from UNCW (‘16).

MAESTRO ADRIAN SYLVEEN (CONDUCTOR)

Award-winning musician

Adrian Sylveen enjoys a performing career in the United States and Europe. He is an artistic director of the Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra and the Connecticut Lyric Opera. Mr. Sylveen has conducted approximately 35 operatic titles and has an extensive orchestral repertoire. He has conducted and performed concerts in the United States, Poland, Italy, Israel, Cuba, Switzerland, Germany, and the former Soviet Union and worked with such ensembles as Israel Chamber Orchestra, Holguín Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra da Camera di GreveIn-Chianti, Olsztyn Philharmonic, Elbląg Chamber Orchestra, Central Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra, and others.

From 2011 to 2013, he was a conductor for the Magnum Opus series with the New Britain Symphony –The Connecticut Virtuosi. He is also a founder of the Classical Orchestra of

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Pila in Poland and the newly formed, Hartfordbased Moniuszko Choir (2016). Mr. Sylveen is a winner of prizes at competitions in Europe and the United States. He received the American Council for Polish Culture Primus Inter Pares Award from the President of the Republic of Poland. He received permanent US residence for “Extraordinary Abilities in the Arts.” Mr. Sylveen holds Master of Music and Artist Diploma degrees from the Yale University School of Music; he is also a graduate of the Paderewski Music Academy in Poznan, Poland (diploma with distinction). He had participated in several international Festivals in Weimar, Łancut, and others.

Since 2012 he has been on the faculty of the Virtuosi Summer Music Institute in Farmington, Connecticut, and, since 2015, an Artistic Director of the Greve Opera Academy and Chamber Music Festival in Greve-InChianti, Italy. Adrian Sylveen collaborated with many exceptional artists, such as Brunilda Myftaraj, Eckart Lorenzen, Luca Rinaldi, Theodore Arm, Jurate Svedaite, Carl Tanner, Michael Wade Lee, Stefan Szkafarowsky, Neal Larrabee, Dmitri Novgorodsky, Rafael Lewandowski, Andre Anweiler, Martin Bresnik, Jadwiga Kotnowska, Marzena Diakun, Grzegorz Dabrowski, Daniel Borowski, Thomas A. Labadorf, Michael Gatonska, Volcan Orhon, Robert DeMaine, Erik Rousi, and many others.

GIORGIO LALOV (ARTISTIC DIRECTOR/ STAGE DIRECTOR/SET AND COSTUMES DESIGNS)

Born in Bulgaria, GIORGIO (Gueorgui) LALOV is the stage director, artistic director and set and costume designer for TEATRO LIRICO

D’EUROPA - 1988 to the present. LALOV, has been performing in and directing fullscale opera productions with international casts since his debut at La Scala, Milan at the age of 25. He speaks English, French, Italian, Bulgarian, and Russian fluently.

Since 1988, his opera productions have been presented at major venues in France, Belgium Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Japan, Germany, Italy, Sicily, Denmark, South

America, the Island of Martinique, and the USA including performances for Opera Dijon, France, Opera De Massy, Paris, performances at Salle Pleyel, Paris, Pavillion Baltard, Paris, Okinawa Performing Arts Center in Japan, Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen, Theatre Carre, Amsterdam, Congresshaus, Zurich, Theatre Trinidade, Lisbon, Teatro Atlantida, Barcelona, Salida de La Compania, Madrid, Teatro Cervantes, Madrid, Teatro Bueno Vallejo, Madrid, Teatro Lope de Vega, Seville, Le Cirque Royale, Brussels, L’Atrium Theatre on the Island of Martinique and over 150 major performing arts venues throughout the USA (including over a dozen American regional opera companies: Syracuse Opera, Opera Rochester, Opera Delaware, Augusta Opera, Palmetto Opera, Opera New Hampshire, Golden Gate Opera, Springfield Regional Opera, Opera Wichita, Palm Desert Opera, Shreveport Opera, Opera Asheville, Opera Tampa Bay, Gold Coast Opera and others)... at this time (2016) - well over 5,000 performances worldwide and still going.

Mr. Lalov has designed the sets and costumes for and staged full-scale productions of: Puccini’s LA BOHEME, TOSCA and MADAMA BUTTERFLY, Verdi’s LA TRAVIATA, IL TROVATORE, RIGOLETTO, AIDA, and NABUCCO, Mozart’s DON GIOVANNI, LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, and DIE ZAUBERFLOTE, Bizet’s CARMEN, Wagner’s LOHENGRIN, Lehar’s MERRY WIDOW, Donizetti’s LUCIA DI LAMMERMORE and L’ELISIR D’AMORE, STRAUSS DIE FLEDERMAUS, Rossini’s IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA, Mascagni’s CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA, Leoncavallo’s I PAGLIACCI and Mussorgsky’s BORIS GODUNOV, all to outstanding critical acclaim from both European and American critics.

“The physical productions and Lalov’s staging were reassuringly traditional. Lalov’s staging tells the story clearly. The solo and ensemble singing in all three operas was lusty, whole-hearted-full throated and honest. Something personal and passionate that is often missing from other evenings of opera.”

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“I’m not alone in hoping that Giorgio Lalov, the talented singer turned creator of Teatro Lirico D’Europa stays well, healthy and continues to bring us such magnificent productions as last Friday’s RIGOLETTO. Do you remember last years’ AIDA? This production was equally well done - the sets were not skimpy as in some traveling shows and oh, those voices! We can only hope to see more from this company in years to come.”

ILLINOIS TIMES - Ann Kerr

ACT I, SCENE 1. A small square in Seville before dawn. Disguised as a student, Count Almaviva serenades Rosina. He learns from Figaro, a former servant, now the city barber and general factotum, that she is Dr Bartolo’s ward, and that he has access to the house. Rosina contrives to drop a note for Almaviva, sending her guardian on a wild-goose chase to pick it up and causing him to resolve to keep her under even closer guard. The letter asks for information about her unknown suitor’s name, rank and intentions. When Bartolo has set off in search of his crony Don Basilio the music teacher to arrange his marriage to Rosina, Almaviva sings another serenade, telling her that he is a poor student called Lindoro. Inspired by the Count’s munificence, Figaro declares that he can get him into the house, disguised as a drunken soldier seeking a billet.

INTERMISSION OF 20 MINUTES

ACT I, SCENE 2. Inside Dr Bartolo’s house. Rosina is determined to marry her unknown suitor, while Bartolo is set on marrying her himself. He tries to interrogate his servants about what has been going on in his house, but they can only yawn or sneeze, because Figaro has dosed them. Basilio tells Bartolo that Count Almaviva has been seen in Seville and advises getting rid of him by slander. They retire to work on the marriage contract. Figaro, who has overheard their plans, tells Rosina and urges her to write to his “poor cousin.” The letter is already written and she gives it to him. Bartolo, suspecting that she has been writing, confronts her with the evidence. She has an answer to all his accusations, but he is not convinced and says he will lock her in her room when he goes out. Almaviva bursts in, disguised as a drunken soldier. In the confusion, he slips Rosina a note that is seen by Bartolo, but Rosina smartly substitutes the laundry list. The night watchmen arrive to quell the riot, but are awed by a document produced by Almaviva.

5-MINUTE PAUSE FOR CHANGE OF SCENERY

ACT II. Inside Bartolo’s house. Bartolo is voicing his suspicions about this soldier when Almaviva appears again, this time disguised as “Don Alonso,” a supposed pupil of Don Basilio, who, he says, is indisposed and has sent him to give Rosina’s music lesson. To allay Bartolo’s suspicions, he produces Rosina’s note, pretending it has fallen into his hands by accident and suggesting that Bartolo tell her it was given to him by a mistress of the count, to prove that he is trifling with her affections. Rosina sings an aria to the count’s accompaniment and as Bartolo dozes off, the count explains his plan for eloping with Rosina later that night. Figaro appears to shave Bartolo and manages to get hold of the key to the balcony.

Basilio arrives but is told to go home because he looks so ill, advice he accepts the more readily because Almaviva slips him a bribe. Figaro begins to shave Bartolo, while Almaviva and Rosina continue to arrange the elopement. Bartolo realizes what is going on and the count and Figaro make their escape.

Basilio comes back with the unwelcome news that the unknown suitor is probably Almaviva himself, a conclusion he has reached because of the size of the bribe. Bartolo sends Basilio to bring the notary to perform the marriage with Rosina and, producing her letter to the count, convinces her that her affections are being trifled with, so she tells him of the planned elopement and agrees to marry him. He goes to get the law to arrest Figaro and Almaviva.

During the storm Figaro and Almaviva climb a ladder to the balcony, only to be confronted by an angry Rosina, but the count calms her fears by revealing his identity. Figaro urges haste, but the ladder has been taken. Basilio arrives with the notary, and they get him to solemnize Almaviva’s marriage to Rosina. Bartolo and the law arrive too late.

PROGRAM NOTES

BY LLOYD SCHWARTZ, CLASSICAL MUSIC EDITOR OF THE BOSTON PHOENIX, CLASSICAL MUSIC CRITIC FOR NPR

People who have never been to an opera or think they know nothing about it, know at least one aria: the “Largo al factotum” from Rossini’s II BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA - THE BARBER OF SEVILLE. It’s the ultimate tonguetwisting patter song (where would Gilbert & Sullivan be without it?), and even inadequate performances have brought down the house. In many ways, though it comes early in the opera, its the opera’s centerpiece: “Figaro here! Figaro there! Figaro up! Figaro down!” Everyone wants a piece of this clever barber, and it’s the nature of farcical hysteria that the hero has to be in more than one place at a time.

Rossini’s opera, with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini, was a musicalization of the first of three plays featuring the barber Figaro and his master, the Count Almaviva, by the 18thcentury French playwright Pierre Augustin Caron dc Beaumarchais. LE BARBIER DE SEVILLE, ou LA PRECAUTION INUTIL (“the useless precaution”), written in 1773, 16 years before the outbreak of the French Revolution, is the least serious, least political, most farcical, and most traditional of the trilogy. By 1782, Giovanni Paisicllo, living in St. Petersburg, had turned it into an opera for Catherine the Great; five years later he revised it for a performance in Naples. By 1796, there was yet another version composed by the 21-year-old MalteseFrench composer Nicholas Isouard.

In the meantime, in 1782, Mozart had one of his greatest successes with his opera based on the second play of the trilogy, LE MARIAGE DE FIGARO, which was psychologically more complex and politically riskier (because closer to the Revolution and dealing with a commoner getting the upper hand over an aristocrat). So by 1816, when Rossini got around to his BARBER, he was working with a well-known commodity. And although opening night was not a success, within a decade the opera was so popular, it may have been the very first Italian opera produced in America (Opera America says it’s the fifth most frequently-performed opera in North America). And while the machinery of the farce is sometimes effortful,

the music is irresistibly buoyant.

After Mozart’s Overture to THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, Rossini’s BARBER OF SEVILLE Overture is probably the archetypal music of comic machinations, which is ironic, because Rossini actually wrote it for a more serious opera, Aureliano in Palmira, and then recycled it for yet another serious historical opera, Elisabetta, regina d’Inghilterra. Perhaps one of the reasons it works so brilliantly in Barber is that some darker, more ominous rhythmic undercurrents run beneath the rapid-fire busyness of its main tunes, and set us up for some flash of real feeling within the comedy.

One of the most marvelous appearances of the overture outside the opera itself is in Fellini’s 8%, where the composer, Nino Rota, takes full advantage of its mixture of the farcical and the portentous. The most fully developed character in the opera, however, is not Figaro himself, but Rosina, the heroine, whose elderly guardian, Dr. Bartolo, is keeping under wraps so he can marry her himself, even though she has fallen secretly in love with a poor student named Lindoro (Count Almaviva in disguise, of course—and more disguises will come later).

Her entrance aria, “Una voce poco fa” (“There’s a little voice resounding in my heart”), is one of opera’s greatest pieces of self-definition. “I am docile, obedient, I can be guided. BUT—if you cross me, I can turn into a viper!” Even though they don’t sing exactly what’s written in the score, several truly imaginative and witty singers (though Rosina was written for a coloratura mezzo-soprano, the role is often sung by a soprano), like Maria Callas or the great Spanish mezzo Conchita Supervia (who started the major 20th-century Rossini revival in the mid-1910s; she died in childbirth in 1936, at the age of 40), will hold on to the “m” in the Italian word “ma” (“but”): “m-m-m-mm-m-A!”—a pointed warning that she will not tolerate being crossed.

The

other famous arias in Barber are Almaviva’s lovely opening tenor serenade, “Ecco ridente” (“Behold, laughing in the sky”), and “La

PROGRAM NOTES

Calunnia” (“The Calumny”), the busybody music teacher Don Basilio’s cynical advice to Dr. Bartolo to spread malicious rumors about his ward’s suitor, in which the music imitates the swelling tornado of gossip (in my favorite English translation, Stephen Hanan rhymes “slander” with “propaganda”). There are also scintillating ducts, breathless ensembles, and a brilliant interlude in which Rossini turns the orchestra into a lightning storm.

The BARBER OF SEVILLE may not have the deep humanity of Mozart’s MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, or Mozart’s profound musicality, but it’s a dazzling and hilarious concoction—one of the most delightful comic musicals the operagoing public ever took to its collective heart.