ENO The Barber of Seville

The Barber of Seville in Italian Il barbiere di Siviglia is an opera in four acts by Italian composer Gioachino Rossini Despite a disastrous opening night the music teacher tripped over and had a prolonged nosebleed and an unexpected cat wandered on stage it has gone on to be perhaps the greatest of all comic operas Indeed Rossini himself stayed at home for the second night until he was awoken by the sound of applause and cheering and his opera has delighted audiences ever since Based on a play called Le Barbier de Séville by French playwright Pierre Beaumarchais this is the first of three plays about a character called Figaro His second play Le Mariage de Figaro was the inspiration for another opera The Marriage of Figaro by Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Rossinis The Barber of Seville therefore is considered a prequel to the story of Mozarts opera although it was composed 30 years later