About
Orchestration
“The Barber of Seville” had its opening night on 20 February 1816 in Rome and it was a disaster. Several on-stage incidents occurred. An actor fell off the stage, a string broke on a guitar and finally a cat walked across stage. However the second performance was a success. In the same year it travelled to an elated audience in Bologna and Florence. The triumphal procession of “The Barber of Seville” began. The performances in eight Italian cities in 1817 were followed by Barcelona and Vienna in 1818 and Paris 1819 and at La Scala in Milan. Via London the opera made its premier in New York ten years later. “The Barber of Seville” is one of the most frequently performed pieces worldwide.
“The Barber of Seville“ was a huge challenge for the puppet theatre. The numerous amount of stage props required to perform this piece was highly demanding. Letters and feathers, cases and boxes, yes even musical instruments needed to be mastered to perfection. Rossini wrote “The Barber” in just three weeks. However it took the puppet theatre over two years to prepare the piece before the second orchestration of this classic could be celebrated on the 6th of July 2013.