Verdi considered "The Barber" "the most beautiful of all existing comic operas", and Beethoven persuaded the author when he met: "The main thing is, write more" Barber "! It was this opera "The Swan from Pesaro" - as Gioacchino Rossini was called during his lifetime - that became the most popular in Russia as well.
Meanwhile, her first performance turned into one of the most notorious curiosities in the history of music: the audience's reception turned out to be more than modest. The premiere took place at the Argentina Theater in Rome on February 20, 1816. Her failure was ensured by the admirers of the venerable composer Giovanni Paisiello, the author of a great many operas, including a work entitled The Barber of Seville. There was such a rumble in the hall, mixed with a loud deliberate cough, that the composer could not stand it and left the theater without waiting for the end of the performance. But Rossini, wanting to show his senior colleague his respect, even changed the name. Initially, his "Barber" was called "Almaviva, or Vain Precaution." True, it soon acquired the name under which it was destined to win the love of music lovers all over the world.
The libretto is based on the play of the same name by Pierre Auguste Beaumarchais. It differs little from the vaudeville plots of the French theater of that time and, perhaps, would have been completely forgotten if not for the creation of Rossini. The plot is simple. Two phrases were enough for Beaumarchais himself to retell it: “The old man in love [Dr. Bartolo] is going to marry his pupil [Rosina] tomorrow. Her young admirer [Count Almaviva], as a more dexterous one, is ahead of him and on the same day he is legally married under the very nose of his guardian in his house. " But everyone knows very well that the story could have ended differently if Figaro, the former count's valet turned barber, had not been around. He invents many tricks and risky tricks that allow the count to meet Rosina and achieve his desired goal.
However, any comic opera is a tough nut to crack for directors. How do you make the viewer really funny? In the Bolshoi, this problem was solved more than once. Thirteen performances are known in the history of the Bolshoi Theater, among which the famous parody comedy performance "The Barber of Seville", invented in 1923 by conductor Nikolai Golovanov, director Vladimir Lossky and set designer Fyodor Fedorovsky, is especially famous. All the female parts were performed by men, all the male parts by women. So, the great Antonina Nezhdanova sang Count Almaviva.
But this is an episode, albeit bright, but out of the ordinary. As a rule, in old productions, direction faded into the background, music was in the first place. In different years this opera was conducted by Vasily Nebolsin, Samuil Samosud, Kirill Kondrashin, Boris Khaikin ... And the best vocal forces of the opera troupe sang. (There is a famous 1952 recording in Russian with the All-Union Radio Orchestra (conducted by S. Samosud), in which all the then stars of the Bolshoi - Ivan Kozlovsky, Vera Firsova, Ivan Burlak, Mark Reisen took part).
It is impossible to argue with Rossini - this is the opinion of Evgeny Pisarev, a recognized theatrical comedian and author of the current production at the Bolshoi. In his opinion, this story is so light and fantasy that he simply "did not dare to pose it seriously."
With his light hand, the Bolshoi plays "The Barber of Seville" in a playful manner, for which the "theater within a theater" technique has been adopted. The action takes place in two spaces. The first is the "stage", the stylized theater of the Beaumarchais times, the "choreographic" space and, in the literal sense, sublime. Below is the "backstage", designed as a modern theater. While the artists are in the mundane, “everyday” space, they behave like ordinary people. Someone is sitting in a tracksuit, someone is making up, someone is being examined by a doctor ... But going up to the "stage", they put on other, theatrical, costumes, change the plasticity and the way of communicating with each other. And everything that then happens on the "stage" - dramatic or comedic, is already "real theater" (in the theater), outright buffoonery, comedy del arte, including, of course, on the real stage of the Bolshoi.
