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A fun intro to Rossini’s comic masterpiece, this Saturday’s noon opera broadcast.
This week’s San Francisco Opera broadcast, Saturday at noon on Classical 91.7, is The Barber of Seville featuring American baritone Lucas Meachem as Figaro and mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard as Rosina.
In this week’s Opera Cheat Sheet, Houston Public Media’s arts & culture director, St.John Flynn, and opera expert, Eric Skelly, introduce Rossini’s musical version of the story of the wily barber’s efforts to secure the lovely Rosina’s hand in marriage for the besotted, and disguised, Count Almaviva.
Barber of Seville. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons.)
Subtitled The Futile Precaution, Rossini’s great opera buffa consistently ranks among the top 10 operas performed worldwide.
[The excerpts heard in this OCS are from the CBS Masterworks recording featuring Riccardo Chailly conducting the Orchestra & Chorus of La Scala, Milan; Figaro: Leo Nucci; Rosina: Marilyn Horne; Dr. Bartolo: Enzo Dara; Don Basilio: Samuel Ramey; Count Almaviva: Paolo Barbacini (CBS M3K 37862)]