Who composed the opera The Barber of Seville, which premiered in Rome in 1816?

Gioachino Rossini composed The Barber of Seville, which premiered in Rome in 1816.

The opera is based on Pierre Beaumarchais’s comedy The Barber of Seville. Cesare Sterbini wrote the Italian libretto, while Rossini composed the music at remarkable speed for the Teatro di Torre Argentina. Its first performance, on 20 February 1816, was poorly received, partly because supporters of Giovanni Paisiello objected to another setting of the same play.

The work quickly recovered and became one of the central comic operas in the repertory. Its plot follows Count Almaviva’s attempts to marry Rosina, helped by the clever barber Figaro. Rossini’s overture, the entrance aria “Largo al factotum,” and Rosina’s “Una voce poco fa” are especially famous.

Rossini’s opera is sometimes confused with Paisiello’s earlier The Barber of Seville, which premiered in 1782. The two works share Beaumarchais’s source, but Rossini’s version became the internationally dominant one.