Last performed in 2008
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Synopsis
Act I, Scene 1
As the opera opens, a group of musicians and the Count Almaviva serenade the lovely Rosina, ward and intended bride of Dr. Bartolo. When the music ends, Figaro, Seville’s convivial barber, enters, delighting in himself, his vocation and his skills as barber, physician, messenger and matchmaker. It is this last attribute that causes Almaviva to enjoin Figaro to help him win Rosina’s heart.
To assure himself that Rosina loves him on his own merits and not for his rank and wealth, Count Almaviva determines to use an alias as he courts the girl. In a serenade accompanied by Figaro, Almaviva tells Rosina that his name is Lindoro and he is a poor student who desires to be her affectionate husband.
Act I, Scene 2
Delighting in Lindoro, her newfound love, Rosina cunningly determines to foil her guardian’s marriage plans. She, too, chooses Figaro to help her and gives him a letter she has written to her love.
In a scheme devised by Figaro, Count Almaviva arrives at Bartolo’s house in a soldier disguise, carrying with him an order that Bartolo must provide him with lodging. Bartolo is furious and causes a commotion that brings the militia to the scene. When the soldiers seize him, the Count quietly explains his identity, and they are forced to release him.
Act II, Scene 1
Almaviva soon reappears at Bartolo’s house, this time disguised as a musician, a student of Rosina’s music teacher Don Basilio. Calling himself Don Alonso, Almaviva explains that Basilio is sick and has therefore sent Alonso for Rosina’s music lesson. Bartolo is skeptical and announces his intention to visit Basilio immediately, but a letter written by Rosina to her secret lover and produced by Don Alonso distracts Bartolo from leaving. When Rosina enters for her lesson, she is startled to recognize her lover in the disguise of Don Alonso. She enthusiastically begins her music lesson by singing from the opera The Useless Precaution.
Barber Figaro interrupts the music lesson and insists upon shaving the doctor. As Bartolo prepares for the shave, Rosina tells Figaro that he must obtain for the lovers the key to the balcony window.
During the shave, the lovers plan their midnight escape, and the Count confesses giving Rosina’s letter to the doctor to preserve Don Alonso’s disguise. At the word “disguise,” Bartolo jumps up and denounces all of the conspirators. The music becomes riotous as Figaro, Almaviva and Rosina flee, chased by Dr. Bartolo.
Realizing that Don Alonso has given him the means to win Rosina, Bartolo summons her. He shows her the letter written in her own hand to Lindoro and informs her that Lindoro and Figaro have plans to kidnap her for Count Almaviva. Rosina believes her guardian and agrees to marry him. Upon hearing of Rosina’s planned rendezvous with her lover, Bartolo tells her to lock herself in her room until he can return.
Act II, Scene 2
Later that evening the Count and Figaro scale Bartolo’s balcony wall with a ladder. They are met by Rosina, who disdainfully confronts “Lindoro” with the accusation of abduction. “Love was my only motive!” replies the young man. “I am no longer Lindoro—I am the Count Almaviva.”
Seeing a lantern, Figaro rouses the reunited lovers from their reverie. As they approach the balcony window to escape, the three notice that the ladder is missing, and Don Basilio is coming with a notary. After a brief aside to the notary and a conciliatory gift to Don Basilio, Figaro arranges the hasty marriage of Rosina and the Count.
Suddenly, Bartolo and the militia descend upon the house. Count Almaviva proclaims his true identity, and the notary produces the completed marriage contract. Bartolo is vexed that his having moved the ladder actually aided the lovers’ cause. “That is what I call a Useless Precaution,” proclaims the company.
Figaro is joined by the assemblage in declaring that the future will be bright.