Boston Lyric Opera Boston Lyric Opera Boston Lyric Opera (BLO) is an American opera company based in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1976. In the 2018-2019 season, Boston Lyric Opera will produce "The Barber of Seville", "Schoenberg in Hollywood"; "The Rape of Lucretia"; and the east coast premiere of Poul Ruder's "The Handmaid's Tale". "The Barber of Seville", Gioachino Rossini's celebrated classic, will be performed from October 12th-21st at the Cutler Majestic Theatre and directed by Rosetta Cucchi, with Argentine mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack as the feisty Rosina. As a part of BLO's new work commissioning program, the world-premiere of Tod Machover and Simon Robson's
The Barber of Seville play, "Le Barbier de Séville", had a similar story: poorly received at first, only to become a favorite within a week. The opera was first performed in England on 10 March 1818 at the King's Theatre in London in Italian, soon followed on 13 October at the Covent Garden Theatre by an English version translated by John Fawcett and Daniel Terry. It was first performed in America on 3 May 1819 in English (probably the Covent Garden version) at the Park Theatre in New York. It was given in French at the Théâtre d'Orléans in New Orleans on 4 March