THIRD TIME LUCKY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 94, 10 April 1941, Page 11

THIRD TIME LUCKY

But "The Barber Of Seville’ Was A Fiasco At First

NE of the regular haunts of music in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries was the barber’s shop. Here customers waiting their turn for shaving, hair-cutting, blood-letting or tooth-pulling, found some simple instrument on which they could strum. The barbers themselves in their waiting time between customers took up the instrument and thus came to possess some repute as performers. It was quite understandable, therefore, for composers of operas to use the guitar-strumming barber as a character in their works, the most famous

being, of course, The Barber of Seville, by Rossini. This opera was written and produced as long ago as 1816, but it is still so popular that 2YA have decided to devote a whole evening programme to it on Sunday, April 13. Between 8 and 9 o’clock there will be

presented a play dealing with the difficulties and unusual circumstances surrounding the composition and first presentation of the opera, and after the break at 9 p.m. for the NBS newsree!, a full presentation of the opera itself in the "Music from the Theatre" series. They Laughed When He Sang Although The Barber of Seville turned out to be a masterpiece, thanks to the happy wedding of Rossini’s finest comic inspiration . with a worthy libretto (based on Beaumarchais’s comedy, The Barber of Seville), the initial performance on February 20, 1816, was notoriously a fiasco. In the first place there was the opposition of the friends of the veteran composer Piasiello, who more than a generation before had himself composed J] Barbiere di Siviglia, and there were other difficulties, Rossini had given the tenor Garcia permission to sing a serenade of his own, with guitar accompaniment, in the first act. His tuning his guitar on the stage and his spiritless singing of the interpolation provoked laughter. Then, instead of the solo expected when the heroine entered, there were a mere few notes sung behind the window of her balcony, and this substitution caused such an uproar that the remainder of the scene could scarcely be heard, Rossini Was Unperturbed Then, when a cat walked on the stage, the audience could not resist catcalls and demands for a saucer of milk. At the end of the act, Rossini offended many of the audience by clapping his hands, though he was not applauding the opera, but the singers who had done their duty under trying conditions, The disturbance continued throughout the second act (Rossini’s own division of the opera is into two acts). The composer, however, left the theatre with an air of complete indifference, and when the agitated prima donna, GiorgiRighetti, hurried to his house, to console him for the failure, she found he had already gone to bed, and was sleeping quietly. Lost Overture At the following performance a serenade by Rossini himself replaced Garcia’s unfortunate song, and the opera was accorded respectful attention and received with considerable favour. At the third performance it elicited the deserved applause. It is worth noting that though the overture composed by Rossini for The Barber was lost, the substitute overture, which had already served for two earlier operas (Aureliano in Palmira and Elizabetta) might have been written expressly to fulfil its ultimate function, and has achieved world renown. In the production from 2YA on Sunday evening the greater part of the opera is sung by the La Scala Opera of Milan, but there have been added two or three solos by Tito Schipa. This is the latest addition to the "Music from the Theatre" series, and this particular presentation will be heard for the first time in New Zealand.