5 Things to Know about THE BARBER OF SEVILLE

In Rossini’s masterpiece of musical comedy, the young Count Almaviva begs the town fixer Figaro to help him woo the beautiful Rosina—but first they must free her from the clutches of her lascivious guardian, Bartolo.

Together the scheming pair employ a progressively hilarious combination of disguises and deceits to help true love with the day.

Read on to learn more about this infectious comic opera before joining us for The Barber of Seville at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in February 2026!

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Rossini’s two-act opera buffa was heavily based on the 1775 play The Barber of Seville or the Useless Precaution (Le Barbier de Séville ou la Précaution inutile) by inventor, musician, playwright, diplomat, and spy Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais. The name of the enterprising main character, Figaro, had been invented by Beaumarchais and may have been an adaptation of the words “fils Caron”. Mozart’s 1786 opera, The Marriage of Figaro, was based on Beaumarchais’s second Figaro play—rendering The Barber of Seville a prequel to Mozart’s opera, though it was composed later..

An overture that keeps on giving

Rossini was a prolific composer who managed to complete, on average, two operas a year over the course of nearly two decades (in some years he composed as many as four). It is believed that The Barber of Seville was composed in just under three weeks—and Rossini may have saved himself some time by recycling the overture from two earlier operas, Aureliano in Palmira and Elizabeth, Queen of England. As a result, audiences paying close attention will notice that the overture reflects none of the opera’s other musical themes.

Quite the turnaround

Premiering as Almaviva, o sia l’inutile precauzione at the Teatro Argentine in Rome on February 20, 1816, Rossini’s opera was received with jeers from the audience and plagued by on-stage accidents that included a nosebleed and a cat wandering in mid-scene. The evening proved such a disaster that Rossini stayed home the following night—only to be awakened by the sound of cheers announcing the great success of his opera at its second performance. The Barber of Seville would go on to be shown in London, Paris, Berlin, and New York and is today one of the world’s most popular comic operas.

Calling all mezzos

Although originally written for a contralto, the role of Rosina is most often sung by a coloratura mezzo-soprano, sometimes with pitch alterations, and occasionally by sopranos. Rosina’s Act I aria, “Una voce poco fa” (“A voice a little while ago”) has duly become a staple of the repertoire for mezzo-sopranos, providing ample opportunity to show off their coloratura. In it, Rosina describes hearing a voice serenading her from outside her window—none other than the young student Lindoro (actually Count Almaviva in disguise). Adelina Patti’s florid rendition of the aria is said to have provoked Rossini to comment, "Very nice, my dear. And who wrote the piece you have just performed?"

“Figaro qua, Figaro la”

The opera’s most famous aria, “Largo al factotum” (“Make way for the servant who does everything”) is sung by the eponymous barber, Figaro, on his entrance. The aria has also featured in the 1949 Bugs Bunny cartoon Long-Haired Hair, the 1964 Tom and Jerry short The Cat Above and the Mouse Below, as well as the opening animated sequence of the 1993 film Mrs. Doubtfire, in which Robin Williams performs the song as the voice of a singing canary. It remains one of the most difficult arias for baritones to perform and is a highlight of an opera justly renowned and widely adored for its musical show-stoppers.