The Barber of Seville buffe". After two hundred years, it remains a popular work. Rossini's opera recounts the events of the first of the three plays by French playwright Pierre de Beaumarchais that revolve around the clever and enterprising character named Figaro, the barber of the title. Mozart's opera "The Marriage of Figaro," composed 30 years earlier in 1786, is based on the second part of the Beaumarchais trilogy. The first Beaumarchais play was originally conceived as an opéra comique, but was rejected as such by the Comédie-Italienne. The play as it is now known was premiered in 1775 by the Comédie-Française at the
Jim Barber (ventriloquist) Jim Barber (ventriloquist) Jim Barber is an American ventriloquist, comedian and singer who performs Internationally. Barber is best known for his unusual performance in which "Seville," his dummy, actually appears to be holding Barber, contrary to the more orthodox way used by his peers. One of Barber's more popular routines involves "Diva," a female dummy which appears to be operated by Seville (with Barber on the other side), with all three engaged in an operatic song from "The Barber of Seville" — part of the pun from which the name of Barber's act, "Jim Barber and Seville," is taken. Barber