Barber of Seville - Virtual Lectures Only. Performance not included.
Brought to you by Odyssey
January 27, 2022 - February 17, 2022 (4 virtual sessions)
Thursdays, 7 PM - 8 PM ET
Virtual Lectures Only. Performance not included.
Figaro, Figaro, Fi-ga-ro! Join Baltimore Concert Opera’s (BCO) Scholar-in-Residence Dr. Aaron Ziegel in a series of lectures designed to prepare and heighten your theatrical experience before attending BCO’s fully staged production of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. The lectures will encompass an in-depth examination of the composer’s biography and operatic output in the context of his times and contemporaries. We will explore the history of comic opera and Rossini’s contributions to that legacy. We will uncover analytical insights into the work’s construction, performance practice, and reception history, in addition to hearing from some of the artists involved in BCO’s production. Whether you know Rossini’s music from Bugs Bunny or are new to the opera, you are sure to come away humming Rossini’s classic tunes!
Beginning with an overview of Rossini's output during his prolific yet relatively brief career as an opera writer, we will focus especially on the emergence of the precocious composer's personal style in his early works written while he was just a teenager. Another essential aspect of the composer's musical makeup is the legacy of comic opera inherited from earlier composers including Mozart, Cimarosa, and Paisiello. These ingredients together lay the groundwork for The Barber of Seville, premiered a week before Rossini's 24th birthday.
Turning to the work itself, the course will examine Rossini's compositional methods, his distinctive musical style idiom as exemplified in Il barbiere di Siviglia, the performance-practice traditions required in singing Rossini's music, the business of opera production in early 19th-century Italy, and the challenges of producing and interpreting this staple of the operatic repertory for today's audiences.