The Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre, located just 750 metres from the Bolshoi Theatre, proudly presents Rossini’s The Barber of Seville — a sparkling masterpiece of wit, rhythm, and theatrical brilliance, performed by acclaimed soloists who have graced the stage of the Bolshoi and trained at Russia’s most prestigious academies.
The setting of The Barber of Seville… Well, that’s not really the point — when and where it happens hardly matters. In Beaumarchais’s stage directions, the characters wear “old Spanish costumes,” while Rossini places the story in the 18th century — which, for Beaumarchais, was not “old” at all, but his own time. In one of the famous productions at the Paris Opera, the story conceived by Beaumarchais and Rossini was set among Turks or perhaps Moors — yet the situations and the characters remained the same.
Here we find the clever, adventure-loving commoner Figaro; the Count (and, let’s admit, there are still counts in many countries today); the elderly Dr. Bartolo; and his young ward Rosina. The essence lies not in the costumes or era, but in these timeless human types and the lively entanglements that surround them.
Gioachino Rossini, who defined his work as an opera buffa, created a brilliant composition full of energy, vivid emotions, and delightfully “typical” — yet completely believable — situations. His characters, much like Beaumarchais’s originals (and as we know, Beaumarchais modeled Figaro after himself), remain as real and recognizable today as they were two centuries ago.