Lawrence Brownlee in Rossini's "The Barber of Seville" with Virginia Opera. Brownlee made his Metropolitan Opera debut in a new production of "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" in 2007. The role has since become one of his most recognizable and famous. He has subsequently appeared in "Il Barbiere" in Vienna, Milan, Berlin, Madrid, Dresden, Munich, Baden-Baden, Hamburg, Tokyo, New York, Washington, San Diego, Seattle, and Boston. Brownlee's career highlights include performances of "The Barber of Seville" at the Vienna State Opera, the Boston Lyric Opera and Madrid's Teatro Real. He has appeared in Rossini's "L'italiana in Algeri" and "La Cenerentola" at Milan's La
The Barber of Seville (Paisiello) Paisiello, but Paisiello's comic opera was the first to achieve widespread success. It was subsequently staged in several cities in the years immediately following its premiere, including Vienna, where "Il barbiere" played at five venues from 1783 until 1804, both in Italian and German, and received nearly 100 performances, and Naples (1783); Warsaw, Prague, Versailles (1784); Cassel, Bratislava, Mannheim (1785); Liège, Cologne (1786); Madrid and Barcelona (1787); for the 1787 production in Naples at the Teatro dei Fiorentini, the opera was reduced to three acts and Pasiello wrote three new numbers: "La carta che bramate" for Rosina, "Serena il bel