The Rossini Opera Festival has chosen to present “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” in a production by Pier Luigi Pizzi as its third major offering this August. Considering that this opera has appeared all over the world in the first half of this year (as reported by Rossini150 social media), it may at first seem a strange choice.

Can there be such a thing as too many Barbieres?
Janet Johnson, best known for her reconstruction of Il Viaggio a Reims, contributed an article about Barbiere to the “Cambridge Companion to Rossini” in which she points out that the marvelous scene where Basilio (who is supposedly ill in bed) interrupts Rosina’s lesson was recognized in its own time as one of the funniest ever written. Johnson writes extensively of the cultural background for this opera and we recommend you read her article, particularly if you think you know all there is to know about Barbiere.