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
Gioachino Rossini Sterbini and not the same as that already used by Giovanni Paisiello in his own "Barbiere", an opera which had enjoyed European popularity for more than a quarter of a century. Much is made of how quickly Rossini's opera was written, scholarship generally agreeing upon two or three weeks. Later in life, Rossini claimed to have written the opera in only twelve days. It was a colossal failure when it premiered as "Almaviva"; Paisiello's admirers were extremely indignant, sabotaging the production by whistling and shouting during the entire first act. However, not long after the second performance, the opera became