Organization

Singer

Carl Kachouh

Tenor-2

Baritone

Alexander Aigner

Fiorello

Tenor

Andrew Morstein

The Count of Almaviva

Mezzo-soprano

Sofia Vinnik

Rosina

Timothy Connor

Figaro

Bass

Ivan Zinoviev

Don Basilio

Soprano

Miriam Kutrowatz

Berta

Stage director

Christoph Zauner

Conductor

George Jackson

Lighting designer

Franz Tscheck

Costume designer

Mareile von Stritzky

Set designer

Nikolaus Webern

Andreas Jankowitsch

Doctor Bartolo

Silent

Patrick Maria Kühn

A notary

Marko Trajkovsky

An officer

Michael Fischer

Patricia Nolz

Cristian Hodrea

Philipp Schöllhorn

Arielle Yuhyun Jeon

MusikTheater an der Wien

Choreographer

Saskia Höbling

Orchestra

Wiener KammerOrchester

Italian

Il barbiere di Siviglia -  (The Barber of Seville)

Vienna

Austria

Wiener Kammeroper

Il barbiere di Siviglia Rossini

Public

The Barber of Seville

German

Approved

Kammeroper

Gioachino Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia is a prime example of an opera buffa. The material, the musical forms, the plot and the characters are paradigmatic for this genre. In addition, there is music of "exuberant animality", as Friedrich Nietzsche put it, which has given this masterpiece unbroken popularity to this day. Even Beethoven, who despised the Rossini frenzy in Vienna in the 1820s, could not deny his admiration for this sparkling opera buffa. The premiere on February 20, 1816 at the Teatro Argentino in Rome was a failure and one of the most cited scandals in opera history. Supporters of the composer Giovanni Paisiello couldn't get over the fact that Rossini set the original, the first part of Beaumarchais' Figaro trilogy, to music again, and whistled after each number. The triumphant advance of Rossini's barbers around the globe could not be stopped. The reception history shows, however, that the perfidious double bottom of the plot was more and more blurred, and the explosive message of this comic opera was unfortunately all too often degraded to cheap clothes. Rossini was one of the first to recognize the signs of a new era: the industrial revolution and capitalism began to form. And Rossini warned their dangerous absurdity on stage. Aren't the title hero's elaborate plans only due to the invigorating effect of the money? Bartolo is only interested in Rosina's fortune, and in the scheming Basilio the fantasies of power and destruction explode. Count Almaviva, on the other hand, is the prototype of the monetary aristocracy, who can arrange everything in their favor with privileges and pecuniary bribes. And isn't Rosina really calculating so as not to misplace a white lie? Stendhal already said of her coloratura that nothing colder is conceivable. Rossini's masterpiece, which reveals the prehistory to the older stroke of genius, Mozart's socially just as clairvoyant Le nozze di Figaro shows is not only one of the most successful pieces in opera literature, Il barbiere di Siviglia is more topical than ever.

English

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Ensemble