What's the story Everyone keeps their eyes wide open in Seville. Count Almaviva looks for the beautiful young woman locked up in the doctor’s house. Rosina searches for a way out of marrying her old guardian, the doctor. And Figaro the barber just looks for the main chance. Dr Bartolo keeps juicy Rosina under lock and key, grooming the perfect bride. But she and Almaviva have other plans, even though they barely glimpse each other when his serenade disturbs the dawn chorus. With Figaro, whose odd-jobbery can access all areas, they try every trick in the book to befuddle Dr Bartolo – secret letters, cunning disguises, a ladder propped up at midnight. After sockfuls of scheming, the doctor gets tricked, youth gets together, and Figaro finally gets paid.

Why should we care? Sparkling and completely unsentimental, The Barber of Seville is a masterpiece of, and about, invention. The plot runs on cash, sex and sheer sauce. Figaro believes money stimulates the brain, and everyone wants to prove their smarts. No-one foxes Figaro: he’s a little bit werrr, a little bit weyyy. He can sort you out with a trim, a cure for toothache and something for weekend, sir. Count Almaviva is lucky to have him, and fortunate that his social position works like a get-out-of-jail-free card. Bubbling chat is equally important. No-one wants to shut up – even Rosina and Almaviva’s escape is foiled because they won’t stop singing long enough to leg it. Speed is of the essence here – Figaro’s feints and bluffs depend on moving too quickly for Bartolo to twig what’s happening. Composer Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) wrote at speed too – although he was only 23 in 1816, The Barber was his seventeenth opera, and was supposedly completed in a fortnight. Having chalked up around forty operas, Rossini abandoned the form for his last four decades, and may have suffered from depression. His vivacious masterpiece allows barely a pause for reflection, perhaps because it fears what happens if you stop moving.

What does it sound like? It sounds like dessert. Rossini appreciated his food, and listening to The Barber is like ordering every pudding on the menu at once. The leading roles are boastfully tricky. Figaro’s opening aria lays out his cv with tongue-twisting fizz, while Count Almaviva’s melting tenor romances the laydeez. As for Rosina, no distressed damsel has ever been less of a victim. In her fiendish introductory aria, she hits daunting high notes from a standing start, asserting her determination to get her way. Rossini was a chancer, cheerfully recycling material from previous operas; The Barber’s overture lays a perfect foundation of humming intrigue, but was actually written for a historical tragedy about Queen Elizabeth I. Rossini’s great skill is lighting the bonfire of mass confusion. The first act ends as everyone’s hopes go into reverse and someone calls the police. People sing slowly, trying to process the information; they sing quickly as everything spins out of control and the orchestra hammers at them. As they admit, it makes their heads hurt.

Other stuff The Barber of Seville is based on a French comedy by Beaumarchais. The play had previously been set to music by Paisiello, and Rossini’s opera was booed by his rival’s supporters at its première in Rome. Despite this disaster, the opera quickly took hold. Verdi called it ‘the finest opera buffa in existence.’ Opera buffa means comic opera, usually drawing on everyday life rather than myth or history. Both of Rossini’s parents were musicians – his mother was a singer, his father played the horn. Rossini was still a teenaged student in Bologna when his first opera was performed: a tale of mistaken identities called Demetrio and Polibio. His love of food is commemorated in a luxuriant dish called Tournedos Rossini – a cute round steak served with thin slices of foie gras and truffles. In Orson Welles’ film Citizen Kane, Kane’s wife continually practises Rosina’s tricky aria in her effort to become an opera diva, but misses the high notes every time.

Exploring further - links The Figaro Plays by Beaumarchais, translated by John Wells (JM Dent). The comedy on which Rossini based his opera. The Barber of Seville/Moses (ENO Opera Guide 36). An introduction to the opera’s history and music, including a full libretto. The Life of Rossini by Stendhal (John Calder). The French novelist’s enthusiastic critical biography.