Word: rosina
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Barber of Seville (which comes in the first half) is a comedy, in which the intelligent barber aids a romantically inclined count (James Bundy) to gain the hand of the object of the count's affection, stealing the beautiful Rosina from under the nose of her nasty guardian (Ralph Zito). All ends well, he who laughs last laughs best, and--though we are left with a measure of sympathy for the ward-less guardian--the curtain closes on the first half with great good humor...
...least as presented in this version, is a little less cutesy. To begin with, there's a major shift in mood: Figaro is not straight comedy, which The Barber certainly is. Instead, it is a fairly cynical look at marriage (the four-years-later episode of Count Almaviva and Rosina's romance), the master-servant relationship (the Count repays Figaro's first act help by demanding the droit du signeur of Figaro's bride), all made more complicated than necessary by intrigues and mishaps. The cast manages generally to overcome the mood-change by keeping the tone as lighthearted...
...taken over by Rossini and the other by Mozart, and the operas effectively put a smokescreen over the originals. Cutting and combining the two plays gives the whole show a fascinating irony. The first play was lighter-hearted, and ended happily with the Count marrying the girl, Rosina. But in the second play, the situation changes--the Count, the hero of the first part, is trying to make off with his servant Figaro's intended bride. In the first play the servant had an alliance with the master; here he plots against his master. That was a revolutionary thing...
Last week, for example, her stage was the San Francisco Opera, where to cheers and sustained applause Von Stade wound up a two-week stand as the young-but-savvy Rosina in Rossini's The Barber of Seville. Then she headed for Italy, where next week she will sing the same role at La Scala. When not in the opera house, she is in the recording studios. Two new albums, French Opera Arias (Columbia) and Frederica von Stade Sings Mozart-Rossini Opera Arias (Philips), display what the fuss is about -a lustrous amber mezzo-soprano voice with an unusually...
...spring of 1973, she scored a smashing success as Mozart's Cherubino in a new production of The Marriage of Figaro at the Paris Opera, with Sir Georg Solti conducting. Suddenly, she found herself an international star, and made a triumphant return to the Met-as Rosina in The Barber...