Le Barbier de Séville

Deutsche Grammophon is proud to release this truly legendary opera recording from the golden age of stereo, remastered in 96kHz from the original analogue tapes, presented on HighResAudio. The Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's French comedy Le Barbier de Séville (1775). The première of Rossini's opera (under the title Almaviva, o sia L'inutile precauzione) took place on 20 February 1816 at the Teatro Argentina, Rome.

The French instrument maker Sébastien Érard was significantly involved in the modern harp’s development. In 1810, he patented the fully chromatic double-action harp. Thanks to the instrument’s seven pedals and a sophisticated mechanism, it was now possible to change the string lengths and raise each note up to two semitones. This enabled the harpist to play in all keys without retuning the instrument. Composers such as Richard Wagner, Gustav Mahler and Claude Debussy took advantage of these new possibilities and established the harp as an orchestra instrument.

« Cinq chanteuses lyriques, un quatuor à cordes, nous racontant, dans des réductions de dix minutes, six des plus grandes œuvres et univers musicaux du répertoire lyrique tout en gardant une qualité musicale irréprochable, le projet est ambitieux, surprenant, alléchant », précise la metteuse-en-scène Manon Savary ; « Force est de constater que l’exercice est réalisable, que les œuvres, réduites à leur essence, prennent un nouveau sens, une nouvelle vie, une nouvelle jeunesse.