Barber of Seville, Quarantined
In honor of our friends at Cincinnati Opera and Dallas Opera - who had to cancel a Barber of Seville that would have been beautiful to behold: jointly owned by Minnesota Opera, Washington National Opera and Opera Omaha. And what a cast! Pretty Yende, Lawrence Brownlee and Lucas Meachem. As we enter the second month of confinement, we all need a little levity. Barber of Seville is the Marx brothers comedy of opera, written by Rossini. Who did it better? (This guy even wrote a famous duet of dueling cats. Try this at home - it’s harder than it looks. Quirky sense of stage humor.)
Want to join our “book club”? It starts with Barber of Seville on May 7 at 5pm CST. You choose which operas appeal and when you want to show up. We provide a delicious cocktail idea and an opera to chat about. We all get to talk to someone who doesn’t live in our house.
Sign up here, and we will forward the link to you on Thursday mornings: Quarantine Opera Book Club
We promise Quarantine Opera can make you laugh!
Need to Know
Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi praised Rossini’s Barber for its “abundance of ideas, comic verve and truth of declamation,” calling it “the most beautiful opera buffa in existence.” That said, this is NOT like Verdi’s operas. The plot of this opera is dizzying, intentionally so. Critical intel? Rosina falls in love with Almaviva, and Figaro inserts himself to be “helpful” and creates chaos. It’s a happy ending, full of deception and bribery. You can read a traditional synopsis from the Metropolitan Opera, or you can watch an Opera in Brief plot summary from Dallas Opera. We HIGHLY encourage you to check out the video - it’s funny and helpful. Then there’s the 3-minute redux from WQXR’s Jeff Spurgeon, which is delivered with a healthy dose of sass. We’re big fans. Keep in mind, operatic comedy of this genre is slapstick and silliness cut with moments of bravado, schmaltz, and vocal fireworks (coloratura) that boggle the mind. Prepare to laugh, ooh and ah, and feel an oh so gentle tug on the heartstrings. This is fluffiness at its finest - an operatic rom com, if you will.
Opera Australia put together a handy dandy Barber of Seville cheat sheet, if you prefer a one-pager.
PG: some adult humor
A Little Trim
This show is silly in plot only. Rossini’s music is devilishly hard to sing, and is a great way to show off both a beautiful voice AND an excellent technique. Look for lots of dynamic shifts, songs with slow and fast passages, and coloratura (notes moving very quickly across a singer’s whole vocal range). Sample two of the most famous tunes from this show here.
Anna Moffo is one of many who’ve mastered “Una voce poco fa”, this great piece of coloratura magic when Rosina declares that Lindoro will be hers. Both sopranos and mezzos sing this, and despite the cutesy name, Rosina has a spine of steel. Check out this version with Isabel Leonard. Sass! Listen to how much freedom the singer has in deciding the pacing and phrasing, as so much of it is wild runs.
Are you a fan of Bugs Bunny? They really covered a lot of great music. Trust me - that’s not the only place you’ve heard Barber Figaro’s “Largo al Factotum” - it appears in countless ads, in cartoons including Bugs Bunny, in Mrs Doubtfire, in The Simpsons. Here’s Thomas Hampson and Lucas Meachem, Dallas’ Figaro. We’ve even got footage of Baumgartner Studio Artist Leroy Davis taking it for a spin in the Lueders Opera Center! We call this a patter song, as the singer has to get a lot of syllables out very quickly.
The overture, or opening orchestral piece, will also sound familiar. This is one of the most famous and repurposed pieces of music out there. The part you’ll recognize (Bugs!) starts at the 2’ mark. Enjoy! And if you’re humming it for days, don’t blame me.
Rinse and Repeat - Sparkling Sangria
For this week’s quarantine opera, we prepared a Sparkling Sangria (using Spanish wines) to celebrate Barber of Seville. I added the ingredients we used, but made a note in the directions to use what's handy, our recipe shifts every time we create sangria. As many of our friends and families will attest, our Sangria tastes fruity and sweet, but be careful - it will pack a punch! ~ John
Ingredients:
1 cup Cava (Spanish Sparkling Wine)
1 cup Rioja (Spanish Red Wine)
1/3 cup Peach Liqueur
1/3 cup Brandy
1/3 cup Lichii Liqueur
1/3 cup Green Apple Liqueur
Oranges and Strawberries for garnish and put directly into the drink
Directions:
Add all ingredients into a pitcher and stir gently. Add ice to glass and serve.
*please note, sangria recipe is to taste, if you don't have all the liqueurs, that's ok, add something fruity and enjoy! For a more traditional recipe, try this.
Figaro, Figaro, Fiiiigggaarrro!
Are you ready to dive in and see the whole show? See a production from Teatro Municipal de Santiago (with English subtitles), rent the Metropolitan Opera on Demand version with Mattei, Brownlee and Leonard, or check out this old school version with Abbado at La Scala.
More than a Shave and a Haircut
This opera is over 200 years old, and remains to this day the best example of an opera buffa (comedy) out there. A playwright named Beaumarchais wrote the Figaro shows that became some of the most beloved operas in the repertoire; Barber of Seville was one of them. Many other composers set the story, but this one became a classic. Weird fact: it began as a libretto for an opera, got rejected and turned into a play, then got turned into a libretto again! In 1825, it became the first opera ever performed in the US in Italian, by an Italian troupe (half of the performers came from one family!) in New York.
Rossini wrote fast, and was prolific. He got this one done in 3 weeks. The 1816 opening night audience booed the heck out of it. (That’s what happens when the buddies of another composer that just wrote and presented a Barber of Seville come rouse the audience against you.) Rossini was so bummed by opening night, he skipped the next performance. But the unprepared cast from opening night who’d struggled with the critics found their way and gave a great show. Crowds made their way to Rossini’s house to applaud him after the performance. Learn more about opening night here.
Rosina, the leading lady, is sung by a mezzo or a soprano. Rossini rewrote his music often to accommodate a specific singer, saw it performed both ways. She also often inserts a random excerpt into the singing lesson, so the audience gets a bonbon!
Dying to know even more? Boston Lyric Opera put together an awesome study guide that’s perfect for students of all ages. It’s a great intro for new keeners.
Readers of classic Italian literature, and those who are curious, this opera employs characters from the commedia dell’arte. Opera buffa developed from comic halftime shows. Boston Lyric again shares some cool history on how Barber of Seville made it to full opera status.
I have to admit, finding a psychoanalyst’s take on Barber of Seville delighted me. In these Beaumarchais stories, we often remark on the intelligence, honesty and one-upmanship we witness from the servant class. This is no exception, and Gerald Izenberg’s reveal on the subversion hidden in this frothy concoction may inspire you to revisit the piece with fresh eyes.
Additional Links
Rossini is known for his vocal gymnastics, but also for a style of singing known as patter, a very fast vocal passage with a lot of words. Say the word “patter” five times very fast and you’ll already have a sense of the sound. Dr. Bartolo’s Aria is a great example, check it out at around 3:30 to really hear the patter!
Opera, especially in the 17th and 18th century, loved to show all the skills a singer could do. Singers took this a step further and would bring an outside aria into the show they were performing, this song was soon coined a “suitcase” aria (a song hauled in from another show). Rossini’s Barber has a long tradition of adding a suitcase aria to the music lesson seen. Hear Beverly Sills continue this tradition by adding her version of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.