Premiere: May 12, 2006
Rossini’s most popular opera is considered the best comic opera ever. The libretto was written by Cesare Sterbini, following Le Barbier de Seville, the first part of the Figaro trilogy by Beaumarchais. The opera was written in only three weeks (the overture was “borrowed” from Rossini’s less successful opera Aureliano in Palmira). The opening night was a fiasco, thanks to the loud, fidgety audience and a series of accidents on the stage during the performance. The second performance was much better received and the opera was soon staged on all big European stages and became one of the most frequently staged works in the history of opera. It is interesting that the same destiny was shared by the Beaumarchais’s drama, which was rejected at the opening night, but became a hit within one week after the premiere.

