The Barber of Seville 1823, and became the first opera ever to be performed in Italian in New York, when Manuel Garcia (who played Almaviva) and his Italian troupe opened their first season there with "Il barbiere" on 29 November 1825 at the Park Theatre. The cast of eight had three other members of his family, including the 17-year-old Maria-Felicia, later known as Maria Malibran. The role of Rosina was originally written for a contralto. According to music critic Richard Osborne, writing in "The New Grove Dictionary of Opera", "it is important to record the degree to which singers have sometimes distorted Rossini’s intentions.
The Barber of Seville (1944 film) is lifted from Woody's first starring appearance in the 1941 cartoon "Woody Woodpecker", in which Woody was voiced by Mel Blanc. Ben Hardaway, also the co-storyman on "Barber of Seville", provides Woody's voice for the first time (replacing Kent Rogers, who was killed in a World War II plane crash three months after this short's release), and Lee Sweetland performs as Woody's singing voice. Hardaway would become Woody's sole speaking voice for the remainder of the decade. Finally, "The Barber of Seville" was the first Woody cartoon directed by veteran animator James "Shamus" Culhane, who had been working on Lantz's