Think you don’t know “The Barber of Seville?” Rossini’s comic opera is one of the most famous of all time. Even if you’ve never seen it, it’s been referenced and parodied in countless movies, cartoons, television shows, and commercials. I’ve included ten such examples at the bottom of this post.
You’ll have three chances to laugh, delight, and walk out humming its hit tunes, tonight, Sunday, and Tuesday at The Princeton Festival, now taking place on the grounds of Morven Museum & Garden, at 55 Stockton Street/Route 206.
The opera will be presented in an all-new production, stage-directed by James Marvel, with fun, Cubist set designs by Blair Mielnik suggesting the timeless, madcap nature of the story. Rossen Milanov will conduct the Princeton Symphony Orchestra.
Andrew Garland will portray the resourceful barber and jack-of-all-trades, Nicholas Nestorak the lovestruck and resolute Almaviva, and Kelly Guerra the beautiful and game Rosina, with Steven Condy providing the requisite impediment to young love as the slow-witted and lascivious Dr. Bartolo. Filling out the cast will be Festival veterans Eric Delagrange and Cody Müller, along with Kaitlyn Costello-Fain and the Festival Opera Chorus. Elaborate disguises, conspiracy, and close shaves inform the action, set to Rossini’s spritely and dynamic score.
Tonight’s presentation, under the festival pavilion, will begin at 7:00. The opera will be repeated on Sunday at 4 p.m. and Tuesday at 7 p.m. A pre-concert talk, “The Funny Thing About Figaro,” will be offered by Dr. Timothy Urban at Morven’s Stockton Education Center at 3:00, prior to the Sunday performance.
The Princeton Festival will continue through June 25. Yet to come: a program for string quartet and interpretive dance featuring the Attacca Quartet and members of American Repertory Ballet; a recital of songs by Black composers sung by Metropolitan Opera singer Will Liverman; a “Mazel Tov Cocktail Party” with klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer and friends; Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” performed by The Sebastians (across the street at Trinity Church Princeton); Andrew Lippa’s musical theater oratorio “I Am Harvey Milk;” and a vaudeville-inspired family concert including “Peter and the Wolf” with Michael Boudewyns of Really Inventive Stuff.
Ancillary events, including talks, a film screening, an art installation, Yoga in the Garden sessions, and kid-friendly activities, will also be offered.
The festival’s state-of-the-art pavilion is 11,000 square-feet, clear-span (no poles or obstructed views), and open-sided, allowing for easy access to refreshments, ample picnicking opportunities, a garden stroll, or the simple enjoyment of a late-spring/early-summer evening.
The Princeton Festival is the premier summer arts program of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra. For more information, tickets, and a complete schedule, visit princetonsymphony.org/festival.
Did you know:
Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” (1816) is frequently confused with Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” (1786). Both operas were based on comedies by the French playwright Pierre Beaumarchais, which were considered subversive, even politically incendiary, when they were written in the last quarter of the 18th century, a time of roiling social unrest, as they enact a kind of class warfare, with wily servants getting over on their aristocratic masters. “The Marriage of Figaro” was particularly edgy, facing challenges from censors and causing many a noble’s head to rest uneasily on his satin pillow. A third play, called “The Guilty Mother,” followed in 1791, by which time the Ancien Régime had already been abolished and the French Revolution was in full swing.
All the principal characters of Rossini’s opera appear in Mozart’s. Though Mozart’s was written first – 30 years earlier, in fact – it’s actually based on the second of Beaumarchais’ “Figaro” plays, so the action takes place later, AFTER that of “The Barber of Seville.” Got it?
Other operas to include characters from Beaumarchais’ trilogy include Jules Massenet’s “Chérubin,” Darius Milhaud’s “La mère coupable,” and John Corigliano’s “The Ghosts of Versailles.” There was also an earlier opera based on “The Barber of Seville,” from 1782, by Giovanni Paisiello.
But Rossini’s is far and away the most famous musical adaptation of Beaumarchais’ “Barber,” and now regarded as his quintessential work. It is quicksilver, farcical, and often very silly – the archetypal opera buffa.
It also contains some of the most recognizable and oft-referenced music in all of opera. Figaro’s “Largo al factotum” (Fi-ga-ro! Fi-ga-ro!), Rosina’s “Una voce poco fa,” and of course the overture are most frequently encountered. Here are ten instances of their use and abuse:
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (1980)
Bugs Bunny, “Rabbit of Seville” (1950)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6Sro9rMofg
Fellini’s “8 ½” (1963)
“Breaking Away” (1979)
“Prizzi’s Honor” (1985)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za4LPc0JXLU
“Seinfeld” (1993)
“Citizen Kane” (1941), “Una voce poco fa”
“Oscar” (1991), “Largo al factotum”
“Help!” (1965), “The Barber of Seville” with the Beatles
“Our Gang Follies of 1938,” with Alfalfa and straight razor, but actually no Rossini!
