The Barber of Seville The Barber of Seville The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution ( ) is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's French comedy "Le Barbier de Séville" (1775). The première of Rossini's opera (under the title "Almaviva, o sia L'inutile precauzione") took place on 20 February 1816 at the Teatro Argentina, Rome, with designs by Angelo Toselli. Rossini's "Barber" has proven to be one of the greatest masterpieces of comedy within music, and has been described as the opera buffa of all "opere
Elisabetta Manfredini-Guarmani back in Bologna to sing the title role in a revival of Paisiello's "Nina, ossia La pazza per amore" at the Teatro Marsigli. Manfredini-Guarmani first worked with Gioachino Rossini in May 1811, when she sang in Haydn's oratorio "The Seasons". The special performance of the oratorio (sung in Italian as "Le quattro stagioni") was in celebration of the birth of the Napoleon II two months earlier and was conducted from the harpsichord by Rossini. When Rossini wrote his opera "Ciro in Babilonia", he composed the role of Almira specifically for Manfredini-Guarmani's voice. Following its premiere at the Teatro Comunale on