Italy has always loved its opera, and the great Italian opera composers were highly acclaimed during their lifetimes. Rossini was celebrated for both his serious operas, such as Tancredi and Semiramide, and his comic operas, with the comic works being better known today. The Barber of Seville was a flop when it premiered in 1816, probably because the production was thrown together and under-rehearsed. Today, however, it is Rossini’s best known work, recognized as one of the greatest comic operas in the literature. Figaro, the conniving barber, aspires to help the young Count Almaviva win the affection of Rosina, who is under the custody of Dr. Bartolo, who is interested in Rosina himself. After preliminary attempts to get Almaviva in to see Rosina fail, Figaro hatches the plan of bringing Almaviva to the house in the guise of a substitute music teacher, while explaining that Rosina’s usual teacher, Basilio, is "sick." Bartolo is suspicious, and Figaro tries to distract him by offering a shave. This diversion works reasonably well until the real Basilio shows up, at which point the schemers must convince the music teacher (with the help of a bribe) that he really is sick and belongs in bed. As Almaviva and Rosina plan their elopement, Bartolo, who has at last consented to Figaro’s offer of a shave, overhears, and the lovers’ plans are foiled. Later, Bartolo deceives Rosina into believing that Almaviva has been unfaithful to her, and she resigns herself to marrying Bartolo instead. Shortly thereafter, however, Almaviva and Figaro return and convince Rosina of Almaviva’s fidelity. When the notary arrives, planning to marry Rosina and Bartolo, he is persuaded to unite Rosina and Almaviva instead.
Rossini’s gift for reaching wide audiences with his musical theater gave him national celebrity and wide-ranging adulation. Nonetheless, at the tender age of 37, he simply stopped composing, for reasons that are not fully clear – although exhausted artistic inspiration must surely have been partly responsible. (His health was also an issue: he had always enjoyed life a bit too fully, and his excessive eating and drinking led to problems that plagued his last 30 years.) During his composing career, he avoided getting swept up in lofty issues, treating musical matters with unassuming practicality. Shortly before Barber was to be premiered, Rossini still had not written an overture for it. Rather than scramble to compose one at the last minute, he simply borrowed an overture that he had already used for two (!) previous operas, most recently the serious work Elizabeth, Queen of England. It is this overture that is now forever associated with The Barber of Seville. As an added curiosity, the Spanish composer Roman Carnicer, aware of the overture’s somewhat arbitrary connection to the opera, composed his own for the first performance in his country. Rossini, upon hearing Carnicer’s overture a few years later, commended it highly, endorsing its use as an occasional substitute for his own overture in further performances of the opera.