Introduction. "Bravo Figaro, Bravo Bravissimo!" -- A Whirlwind of Change -- Early Revivals : Almaviva, Bartolo, and Their Many Ways -- The World of Rosina and the Prima Donna's Playground -- A Return to Rossini -- The Untethered Splendor of Il barbiere di Siviglia.

English National Opera Guides are ideal companions to the opera. They provide stimulating introductory articles together with the complete text of each opera in English and the original. Rossini is one of the great operatic composers, an innovator within the whole concept of what was appropriate for serious as well as comic opera. Moses is a score which he revised for Paris, ten years after it had been composed for Naples; the result shows the evolution of his dramatic taste over a crucial decade--from the neo-classical sublime to spectacular Romantic grand opera. The Barber has been a consistent favorite with the public and performers since it opened, and Marco Spada analyses how its stylish comedy has been misunderstood. Other essays throw light on the working conditions of the opera industry in Rossini's Italy, on Balzac's delightful novel concerning Moses and on the exceptional challenge of performing this type of music to a high standard.

The Barber of Seville * The Marriage of Figaro * The Guilty Mother Eighteenth-century France produced only one truly international theatre star, Beaumarchais, and only one name, Figaro, to put with Don Quixote or D'Artagnan in the ranks of popular myth. But who was Figaro? Not the impertinent valet of the operas of Mozart or Rossini, but both the spirit of resistance to oppression and a bourgeois individualist like his creator. The three plays in which he plots and schemes chronicle the slide of the ancien régime into revolution but also chart the growth of Beaumarchais' humanitarianism. They are also exuberant theatrical entertainments, masterpieces of skill, invention, and social satire which helped shape the direction of French theatre for a hundred years. This lively new translation catches all the zest and energy of the most famous valet in French literature. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.