The Barber of Seville for kids: the story and the music

The Barber of Seville is a comic opera by the Italian composer Gioachino Rossini. It was first staged in Rome in 1816. A clever barber named Figaro helps a young count win the girl he loves, with two disguises, a ladder, and a great deal of fast singing. The story has no villain worse than a grumpy old man, and it ends with a wedding.

Quick facts

• Composer: Gioachino Rossini, who lived from 1792 to 1868
• First staged: Rome, February 1816
• Sung in: Italian
• Set in: Seville, in the south of Spain
• Kind of opera: a comedy in two acts
• Based on: a French play from 1775

Who is who

• Figaro: the town barber, who knows everyone and can fix anything
• Count Almaviva: a rich young nobleman in love
• Rosina: a bright young woman with a mind of her own
• Doctor Bartolo: Rosina’s guardian, who plans to marry her himself
• Don Basilio: Rosina’s music teacher, who will do anything for money

The story in short

The serenade. Count Almaviva has fallen in love with Rosina. He sings under her window at dawn. He wants her to love him for himself and not for his title, so he tells her that he is a poor student named Lindoro.

Rosina lives with her guardian, Doctor Bartolo. He keeps her shut in the house, and he plans to marry her for her money.

The barber. Figaro strolls in, boasting that the whole town needs him. The Count pays him to help, and Figaro has a plan.

The first disguise. The Count comes to the door dressed as a soldier and says the army has sent him to stay in the house. He slips Rosina a note. Bartolo is suspicious, and the scene ends in an uproar, with everyone singing at once.

The second disguise. The Count returns as a music teacher. He says that Don Basilio is ill and that he has come to give Rosina her singing lesson.

Figaro arrives to shave Bartolo, and he lathers the old man’s face to keep him from watching the lesson. Then the real Don Basilio walks in, in perfect health. A purse of coins sends him home to bed.

The storm and the ladder. That night, a storm passes over the town. Figaro and the Count climb a ladder to Rosina’s balcony. The Count tells her who he is.

Bartolo has taken the ladder away. He has sent for a notary, an official who can draw up a marriage, to marry him to Rosina that same night. The notary arrives, and Figaro has him marry Rosina to the Count before Bartolo gets back.

The end. Bartolo is too late. The Count lets him keep Rosina’s money, and the old man makes the best of it. Everyone sings.

Four pieces to hear first

The overture. A slow start, a tiptoe tune in the violins, and a long crescendo. Rossini had used this overture for two earlier operas, so none of its tunes come from this story.

“Largo al factotum.” Figaro’s entrance song. He brags that everyone in town calls for him at once. Listen for his own name, sung over and over, faster and faster.

“Una voce poco fa.” Rosina’s song. She begins sweet and quiet. Then she warns that anyone who crosses her will be sorry, and her voice races up and down in fast runs.

“La calunnia.” Don Basilio explains how a rumor grows. It starts as a breeze and ends like a cannon shot. The music starts soft and grows the whole time.

The Rossini crescendo

Rossini had a favorite trick. He took a short tune and repeated it again and again. Each time, he added instruments and made it a little louder. The effect is a slow build to a roar.

Listen for it in the overture and in Don Basilio’s song. Read dynamics in music.

A bad first night

Rossini was 23, and he wrote the opera in about three weeks. An older composer had written an opera on the same story, and his fans came to the theater to jeer.

The first night was a failure, with catcalls and accidents on stage. The second night was a triumph, and the opera has stayed on stage ever since.

The same Figaro

The French play was the first of three about Figaro. Mozart turned the second play into his opera The Marriage of Figaro. In it, the same Count and Rosina have been married for a few years, and Figaro is about to marry too.

Mozart’s opera is 30 years older than Rossini’s, though its story comes later.

Where you may have heard it

A famous cartoon from 1950 uses the overture. A rabbit gives a hunter a shave and a haircut in time with the music. Read classical music in cartoons.

Things to do together

Grow the crescendo. Play the overture. Crouch low when the crescendo starts, and rise a little with each repeat.

Say it fast. Pick a tongue twister. Say it slow, and then faster, the way Figaro sings.

Count the Figaros. Play Figaro’s song. Keep a tally of how many times he sings his own name.

Pass a rumor. Whisper a sentence around the table. Each person says it a little louder. End with a shout.

Disguises. Put on a hat or a scarf and come into the room as someone else. The others guess who you are meant to be.

Draw the house. Draw Bartolo’s house with its door, its balcony, and the ladder. Tell the story with a finger.

Questions to ask

• Why does the Count pretend to be poor?
• Who is the smartest person in the story?
• How does the music tell you this is a comedy?
• What would you sing about if you bragged like Figaro?

Words to know

• Comic opera: an opera that is meant to be funny
• Overture: the music played before the curtain rises
• Crescendo: getting louder little by little
• Guardian: an adult who is in charge of a young person

Print and play

Use a listening journal page for the overture. Read Rossini for kids, opera for kids, and the guide to the William Tell Overture.