SATURDAY, November 14, 2020 – 5:39 AM
Overture to The Barber of Seville, age 24
Instrumentation:
- flute, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons
- 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones
- timpani, snare drum
- strings
Yuri Temirkanov
I don’t know anything about this conductor, but I love what he does with this piece.
A very famous piece of music.
This is one of the two most famous of Rossini’s operas, the other being William Tell, and the whole world knows this overture. It has been hugely popular for over 200 years.
This piece sounds really good but it definitely reminds me of something I would hear in an old cartoon.
This is one of those pieces that you always hear portions of on tv or in movies, but never learn the name of. I especially like the transitions from the more suspenseful portions of the piece back to the upbeat theme.
Well an opera without voices leaves you rather hungry for the voices. I found one lovely song accompanied only by a lute, called Ecco ridente in cielo, and a slew of information not only about the opera, but opera composing in the time of Rossini. https://utahopera.org/explore/2020/03/the-barber-of-seville-online-course-by-dr-paul-dorgan-part-1-the-musical-story-of-act-1-scene-1/
I’ve also always been kind of confused about “Figaro”. So there was a play – Rossini wrote the opera about the courtship of Figaro; Mozart in Marriage of Figaro wrote about the marriage. So that’s why all those Figaros popping up.
I think this piece is great. It is a fun listen with loud highs and soft lows yet the conductor uses subtle movements to conduct it all. Great performance
The conductor barely moves, yet huge music keeps coming out. Proof that one doesn’t need to ham it up like so many do.
This is always fun to listen to and this was a particularly good performance.