Opera buffa prima donna soubrette (soprano or mezzo); a light, amorous tenor; a basso cantante or baritone capable of lyrical, mostly ironical expression; and a basso buffo whose vocal skills, largely confined to clear articulation and the ability to "patter", must also extend to the baritone for the purposes of comic duets. The type of comedy could vary, and the range was great: from Rossini's "The Barber of Seville" in 1816 which was purely comedic, to Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro" in 1786 which added drama and pathos. Another example of Romantic "opera buffa" would be Donizetti's "L'elisir d'amore" of 1832. While
The Barber of Seville (play) The Barber of Seville (play) The Barber of Seville or the Useless Precaution () is a French play by Pierre Beaumarchais, with original music by Antoine-Laurent Baudron. It was initially conceived as an opéra comique, and was rejected as such in 1772 by the Comédie-Italienne. The play as it is now known was written in 1773, but, due to legal and political problems of the author, it was not performed until February 23, 1775, at the Comédie-Française in the Tuileries. It is the first play in a trilogy of which the other constituents are "The Marriage of Figaro" and "The