Il barbiere di Siviglia
[Almaviva o sia L'inutile precauzione]
The Barber of Seville
[ Almaviva or the Useless Precaution]
Commedia in two acts by
CESARE STERBINI
after the comedy by
Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais
First performance:
Rome - Teatro Argentina
20 February 1816
Edited by
PATRICIA B. BRAUNER
With an Appendix on Contemporary Vocal Ornamentation by
WILL CRUTCHFIELD
BA 10506: Score and Commentary
BÄRENREITER-VERLAG 2008
CHARACTERS:
COUNT ALMAVIVA, tenor
BARTOLO, physician, Rosina's guardian, bass
ROSINA, Bartolo's rich ward, mezzo-soprano
FIGARO, barber, baritone
BASILIO, Rosina's music teacher, hypocrite, bass
BERTA, Bartolo's old housekeeper, soprano
FIORELLO, Almaviva's servant, bass
AMBROGIO, Bartolo's servant, baritone
An officer, baritone
An Alcalde, or Magistrate, baritone
A Notary, silent
Male chorus of soldiers, musicians
Extras: Alguazils, or policemen
The action takes place in Seville
Instrumentation: 2 Flutes/2 Piccolos, 1 Oboe,* 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons, 2 Horns, 2 Trumpets, Bass Drum and Cymbals, Sistrum (Triangle), Strings, Continuo, Pianoforte, Guitar
Instrumentation for the Overture (composed for Aureliano in Palmira): 2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons, 2 Horns, 2 Trumpets, Timpani, Bass Drum and Cymbals, Strings
*Barbiere was composed for an orchestra in which there was one flutist (who doubled Piccolo) and one oboist (who doubled Flute or Piccolo).
Il barbiere di Siviglia, Rossini's beloved comedy, has been performed in theaters all over the world since its premiere in 1816; it has never gone out of the repertory. This new critical edition provides an accurate text of Rossini's opera and a great deal of material pertaining to the opera that is useful to scholars and performers alike. Even though Rossini's own autograph manuscript has been in the library of the Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica di Bologna since 1862, previous editions failed to present the opera accurately. The present edition consulted a large number of original sources, some not available to earlier editors. It benefits from decades of studying Rossini's notational idiosyncracies and from recognition of how studying changes in the autograph manuscript can help determine correct readings.
In particular, the new critical edition of the overture, for which no autograph survives, has taken into account the readings of thirteen manuscripts of Aureliano in Palmira (the opera for which the overture was originally composed) and seven manuscripts of Il barbiere di Siviglia that include this overture (many sources for Barbiere have no overture at all or substitute a different one, often either the overture from Il Turco in Italia or the revised version of the Aureliano overture Rossini prepared for Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra). The new edition also allows performers to use either the original scoring of the overture (including two flutes, two oboes, and timpani), the scoring of the remainder of Il barbiere di Siviglia (with only one flute/piccolo, one oboe/flute/piccolo, and no timpani), or a compromise version (with two flutes/piccolos, one oboe, and no timpani).
Every retelling of the story of Barbiere's composition and first performances passes on elements of a collection of anecdotes that, like a calumny, has grown completely out of control. The Historical Background in the Preface to the score draws on new studies of materials from Rome's State Archives and from the Secret Archives of the Vatican, as well as on letters and documents recently resurrected in the rare books market, to present a fully documented history of those few weeks in the winter of 1815-1816 that gave birth to the opera that Geltrude Righetti-Giorgi, the first Rosina, called "a masterpiece of art." The Preface also includes a description of the various musical sources and librettos used in preparing the edition and a section on "Problems in Editing and Performing Il barbiere di Siviglia."
For the first time in the history of Rossini critical editions published under the direction of Philip Gossett, this edition contains (in the score volume) a reading version of the libretto of Il barbiere di Siviglia. The libretto is printed as it was actually set to music, rather than in the literary form in which it was printed for the audiences.
A series of appendices provides performers with additional music and information. In the score volume are three musical appendices.
I. Rossini's own vocal ornamentation, including four different sets of variations for Rosina's cavatina, "Una voce poco fa," an important set of variations for Rosina in her duet with Figaro ("Dunque io son"), and an extraordinary set of variations and cadenzas, never before published, for Rosina in the Terzetto ("Ah qual colpo").
II. An aria, "Ah se è ver," for Rosina that Rossini himself added for Joséphine Fodor-Mainvielle (Venice, spring 1819). This piece, to be inserted before the Storm, is particularly useful in cases where the role of Rosina is sung by a soprano.
III. Two arias that are a significant part of the perfomance history of the work: "La mia pace, la mia calma," the first substitute aria for the lesson scene, sung by the original Rosina in the first revival of the opera (Bologna, summer 1816), and "Manca un foglio" (by Pietro Romani), first sung by Bartolo in place of "Un dottor della mia sorte" (Florence, autumn 1816).
Two additional appendices are printed in the Commentary volume,
IV. Material allowing theaters to reproduce a version of the opera performed in Naples, with spoken dialogue and the role of Bartolo in Neapolitan dialect.
V. A broad selection of ornamentation used by singers during the first fifty years of the opera's history, prepared by the conductor, musicologist, and vocal coach Will Crutchfield. Such material is not meant to prescribe how singers should ornament their parts, but only to indicate the kinds of variations and cadenzas singers actually introduced during Rossini's lifetime.
Finally, recognizing the practical needs of theaters, the new edition includes in its rental materials transposed versions of the Cavatina Rosina, the Aria Basilio, and the Rosina's Aria in the lesson scene, so that singers may employ the alternative tonalities (higher keys for Rosina, a lower key for Basilio).