The Dallas Opera 2021-2022 - The Barber of Seville/The Pearl Fishers

9 FUN, MORE FUN, AND STILL MORE FUN! How wonderful it is to hear laughter in the opera house! You’ll hear it nonstop in Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville , the most popular comic opera ever written. Its antics provide priceless hilarity onstage, but the greatest joy is the music itself. The very sound of Rossini’s score just can’t help making us smile, thanks to a composer whose sense of humor is unique in the whole history of opera. Prior to Barber , Rossini had already written 16 operas. That would have been extraordinary for a composer of any age, but for one who hadn’t yet reached his 24th birthday? It’s truly incredible! But Rossini was the son of professional musicians, and it was inevitable that opera would be his life. Music just poured out of him, and by the time he wrote Barber in 1816, he was already Italy’s most admired opera composer. Italian opera audiences had certainly enjoyed their share of comedies, including another Barber —by Giovanni Paisiello—34 years prior to Rossini’s, and a huge success. We can owe the disastrous world premiere of the Rossini Barber in Rome in no small The Barber of Seville, the most exhilarating of all operatic comedies By Roger Pines THE BARBER OF SEVILLE PHOTO: CORY WEAVER/MINNESOTA OPERA