Opera guides
Il barbiere di Siviglia: synopsis, roles, arias and diction notes
Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) in one page: Sterbini's libretto, 1816 premiere, voice types, famous arias and Italian diction.
Diction Desk editors · Checked 19 October 2026 against 3 sources
Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini1. It premiered on 20 February 1816 at the Teatro Argentina in Rome1. Its most famous aria is Figaro's entrance, Largo al factotum della città1.
- Composer
- Gioachino Rossini1
- Librettist
- Cesare Sterbini1
- Premiere
- 20 February 1816, Teatro Argentina, Rome1
- Language
- Italian1
- Acts
- 21
- Source play
- Beaumarchais, 17751
Contents
Rossini’s comedy of bribery, deception and disguise3 opened to jeers and became one of the most loved scores in the repertoire. This page gives the facts a singer needs before opening the vocal score. It is one of the guides in the operas section.
At a glance
Il barbiere di Siviglia is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini1. It is based on Pierre Beaumarchais’s French comedy The Barber of Seville (1775) and recounts the first of Beaumarchais’s three Figaro plays1. Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro (1786) is based on the second part of the trilogy1. Rossini composed the music in just under three weeks1.
It premiered on 20 February 1816 at the Teatro Argentina in Rome, under the title Almaviva, o sia L’inutile precauzione1. Rossini lived from 29 February 1792 to 13 November 18682. Sterbini (1784 to 19 January 1831) was an Italian writer and librettist who is best known for two Rossini operas2.
Who’s who
| Role | Voice type | Premiere singer |
|---|---|---|
| Count Almaviva (disguised as Lindoro) | Tenor | Manuel Garcia1 |
| Figaro, the barber | Baritone | Luigi Zamboni, for whom Rossini wrote the role1 |
| Rosina, Bartolo’s pupil | Contralto | Geltrude Righetti-Giorgi1 |
| Doctor Bartolo, Rosina’s guardian | Bass | Bartolomeo Botticelli1 |
| Basilio, Rosina’s music teacher | Bass | Zenobio Vitarelli1 |
| Berta, Bartolo’s old governess | Soprano | Elisabetta Loyselet1 |
| Fiorello, Almaviva’s servant | Bass | Paolo Biagelli1 |
In 1816 “baritone” had yet to become recognized as a separate vocal register, so Rossini wrote baritone parts as basses1. Female singers were typically designated simply as soprano or contralto, and the term mezzo-soprano was not yet standard in scores1.
Synopsis
Almaviva has followed Rosina from Madrid to Seville, disguised as a poor student called Lindoro3. He hopes to make her love him for himself, while Bartolo plans to marry her once she is of age and so take her considerable dowry1.
Act 1
The serenade produces no response from Rosina3. Almaviva pays off the musicians, who depart, leaving him to brood alone1. Figaro, a barber who prides himself on his ability to manage the affairs of the city, enters with Largo al factotum and agrees to help1,3. He advises the Count to disguise himself as a drunken soldier ordered to be billeted with Bartolo1. Basilio advises that Almaviva be discredited with false rumors, in La calunnia1.
Almaviva enters the house disguised as a drunken soldier and demands to be quartered there1. His behavior causes such a row that the neighbors call the militia3. The confusion intensifies until everyone suffers headaches and auditory hallucinations1.
Act 2
Almaviva returns as Don Alonso, a singing tutor1. Basilio appears for his scheduled music lesson but is bribed with a full purse and persuaded to leave1. Figaro smashes a pile of crockery to lure Bartolo away from the music room and steals the key to Rosina’s balcony3. Berta complains of the crazy household, where the little old man is looking for a wife1.
During an instrumental interlude the music creates a thunderstorm to indicate the passage of time1. The lovers find they cannot escape because Bartolo has removed the ladder3. Using bribes and threats, Almaviva coerces the notary into marrying him to Rosina, with Basilio and Figaro as the legally required witnesses1. Bartolo and the magistrate appear too late, and he must acknowledge that he has lost Rosina3. The opera concludes with an anthem to love1.
The famous arias
| Number (first line) | Role | Act | Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|
| Largo al factotum della città | Figaro | Act 1 | Room for the city’s jack-of-all-trades1 |
| Una voce poco fa | Rosina | Act 1 | Cavatina that opens her scene in Bartolo’s house1 |
| La calunnia è un venticello | Basilio | Act 1 | Slander is a gentle little wind1 |
| Cessa di più resistere | Count Almaviva | Act 2 | Bravura aria omitted from most performances after the premiere1 |
| Contro un cor | Rosina, in the lesson scene | Act 2 | Maria Callas sang it shortened and transposed up a tone in a 1956 La Scala recording1 |
The Act 2 singing lesson has often been turned into a show-stopping cabaret1. Adelina Patti was known to include Luigi Arditi’s Il bacio in the lesson, and Pauline Viardot began the practice of inserting Alyabyev’s Nightingale1.
In the original
Three first lines set out for study. The translation is ours and literal.
| Original | Our translation |
|---|---|
| Largo al factotum della città1 | Room for the city’s jack-of-all-trades |
| Una voce poco fa1 | A voice not long ago |
| La calunnia è un venticello1 | Slander is a gentle little wind |
Sterbini died in Rome on 19 January 18312.
Background and early history
The premiere was a disaster: the audience hissed and jeered throughout, and several on-stage accidents occurred1. Many in the audience supported one of Rossini’s rivals, the veteran Giovanni Paisiello, who had composed another opera on the first play in 17821. The second performance, however, was successful1. The original French play was also poorly received at first, then became a favorite within a week1.
The overture was recycled from two earlier Rossini operas1. Rossini completed an average of two operas per year for 19 years1. The opera was first performed in England on 10 March 1818 at the King’s Theatre in London, in Italian1. It was first performed in America on 3 May 1819, in English, and in 1825 it became the first opera performed in Italian in New York1. ENO’s production debuted at the London Coliseum in November 19873.
Casting and voice notes
Rosina was originally written for a contralto1. Because of a scarcity of contraltos, the role has most frequently been sung by a coloratura mezzo-soprano1. Rossini wrote a new aria for the second act for Joséphine Fodor-Mainvielle, a soprano Rosina1. Osborne called the upward transposition of the role, which turns a lustrous alto into a pert soprano, the most serious distortion of Rossini’s intentions1.
A mezzo-soprano Berta will find the tessitura of her aria uncomfortable1. For a mezzo-soprano Berta the climb to C6 at the conclusion of the Act 1 finale ensemble is rather difficult to achieve, according to Zedda, editor of the first critical edition1.
Language and diction notes
The libretto is Italian, so prepare the text with Italian diction for singers before you open the score. Rossini’s fast patter in Largo al factotum rewards a clean, even syllable rhythm, so speak each line at full speed before you add pitch.
Look up factotum, calunnia and venticello on the Italian page before you learn the first lines above. To place Rosina, Almaviva and Basilio by voice type, read the Fach system guide.
Where to go next
Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro is based on the second part of Beaumarchais’s trilogy1. For a German-language Mozart score, read The Magic Flute.
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