Talk:The Barber of Seville/Archive 1

Beaumarchais and Rossini
The Beaumarchais and the Rossini works should be separated and put on two different pages. This is mainly about the Rossini.

Kleinzach 20:28, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

I agree with Kleinzach; I was redirected to the Rossini opera page after typing in the original French title of the Beaumarchais play. Sobekneferu 09:53, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

I disentangled the play from the opera last month but seem to have missed the redirect from Barbier de Séville and Le Barbier de Seville to here (both now fixed). If you'd typed Le Barbier de Séville, you'd have got to the right place. --GuillaumeTell 10:40, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

Factotum
I've usually seen factotum translated into English as "Man Friday."

"During a performance of The Barber of Seville in Cincinnati in 1952, four audience members died suddenly during Act II. Rossini was held for questioning and subsequently released." This makes no sense. Can anyone find a source on this? Roscelese 14:22, 16 May 2006 (UTC)


 * I've removed the comment from the article page. As you say, it's nonsense. Figaro 15:52, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

Marriage of Figaro
Why isn't Mozart's opera mentioned in this article as the sequel? Barber of Seville is mentioned in the Figaro article.. just thought I would ask first before putting it in somewhere.
 * No need to ask - be bold! --GuillaumeTell 13:19, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

Although the two story lines are connected, they were written in completely different time periods, with different styles of Music. The Marriage of Figarro is an Opera Buffa piece, but was written in the 18th Century by Mozart, a very classical composer. The Barber of Seville, was written by Rossini, in the 19th Century, with a rather Romantic approach to the Musical ideas. The stories coincide, but the music is regressive, not progressive. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.17.110.130 (talk) 20:49, 4 May 2009 (UTC)

Noted Arias and Duets
Does anyone else think this section is redundant? Markhh 08:13, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Recordings
As Kathleen Battle was born in 1948, a recording with Domingo in 1959 or 1960 hardly seems likely

```` —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.108.238.60 (talk) 04:21, August 30, 2007 (UTC)

1 Jan 08: Removal of refs to cartoons
I suppport the removal of what is only trivia. 19:49, 1 January 2008 (UTC)


 * As do I. Viva-Verdi (talk) 02:47, 27 January 2008 (UTC)


 * It's not necessarily "trivia". In some form or fashion, the impact of The Barber of Seville in popular culture should be discussed if this article is to give an accurate overview of its subject matter. Surely, it could stand to be revised and probably sourced (better than deleted), but is there any good reason other than snobbish opinion why an article on The Barber of Seville wouldn't mention - even in passing - the opera's perpetual usage in cinema - animated or otherwise? Me personally, I don't give a care what is or isn't included; but if your aim is to write a decent, balanced encyclopedia article, then...  --FuriousFreddy (talk) 02:55, 27 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Keep. With respect &mdash; 's support for removal from 27 January is unsurprising as he made the original proposal on 1 January.
 * Given the sheer amount of references to the work in popular culture, the section –correctly not named Trivia– seems very worthy of inclusion. Michael Bednarek (talk) 03:40, 27 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I support the removal of cartoons reference. I don’t see how cartoon references fit an encyclopedia. It is just so not right! - Jay (talk) 04:09, 27 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Given that there are opposing views regarding the section "In popular culture", I think its (repeated) removal seems inappropriate to me &mdash; at least, until we get a consensus on this page, as Viva-Verdi suggested on FuriousFreddy's talk page. Unitl then, I suggest Jay revert this edit: Undo. Notwithstanding the cautions in WP:IPC, I can't see anything in that essay that would preclude such a section here.
 * FYI, Wikipedia has thousands of articles on cartoons. This is not the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition. Michael Bednarek (talk) 05:13, 27 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Keep (I'm pasting here in slightly abbreviated form what I wrote at the Opera Project talk page earlier today) I totally agree with Michael Bednarek. The resonance of artistic works beyond their original context and audience is an important cultural phenomenon. Opera cartoons (especially classics like the ones mentioned in this article), parodies, and even Seinfeld are often referenced in 'serious' opera reviews, and by opera houses and other cultural organizations themselves. I know of at least one American opera house administrator who says that The Rabbit of Seville was his introduction to opera when he was 7 years old and he's never looked back. Here are just a few examples:
 * http://www.andante.com/article/article.cfm?id=16374
 * http://www.dallasopera.org/the_season/060702-index.php
 * http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17854152
 * http://www.operaamerica.org/audiences/learningcenter/intro/mainstream.shtml
 * In my view the existence of parody and/or use in popular culture is an indication of a work's importance, not demeaning or an insult to some kind of 'sacred' art form. I've written in a similar vein here. These kinds of sections just have to be watched to ensure that the other genres and works making the reference are in themselves reasonably high profile. It's true that monitoring to remove tangential and/or spurious references makes for more work, but a blanket ban and summary removal of outside cultural references can be a net loss to the article. It helps to discourage inane listcruft if the section is written as prose not a simple list. And giving it a section title like "Cultural resonance outside opera" or "The Barber of Seville elsewhere" rather than using the terms 'trivia' or 'pop culture' also helps. When unsure of the cultural notability or relevance of some additions, or if the list becomes too long, it should not be summarily removed but transferred to the talk page (apart from obviously uninformative/silly mentions) where future editors can be requested to integrate the material into the text of the article. The trivia-adders tend to back off when you do that.  Here's how I handled it in Cavalleria rusticana. There's been no 'trouble' with that article since then. Best, Voceditenore (talk) 14:27, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

mezzo soprano, later soprano ?
I find this a bit weird... I've always thought this part was an archetypical mezzo-soprano part... any source on this ? Xav71176 (talk) 17:34, 28 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Rosina has been performed quite frequently by sopranos over the years (note the names of Maria Callas, Roberta Peters and Kathleen Battle in the rather strange "Selected Recordings" section), and in the nineteenth and early twentieth century sopranos such as Adelina Patti, Nellie Melba and Marcella Sembrich used to sing all sorts of coloratura stuff during the lesson scene in Act 2. It's only relatively recently that opera companies started to pay attention to what the composer actually wrote.  Nevertheless, the New York Met alternated a soprano and mezzo in the role within the last year.


 * I think the problem is the word "later". "sometimes" might be better. --GuillaumeTell (talk) 18:06, 28 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Some sopranos (notably Maria Callas and Victoria de los Angeles) have sung (and recorded) the role in the original mezzo range. Kostaki mou (talk) 04:07, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Italian Title
Shouldn´t the original title of this article be "Il barbiere di Siviglia" instead of "The Barber of Seville"? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.1.160.225 (talk) 16:16, 4 October 2008 (UTC)


 * See the Opera Project titling guidelines Best, Voceditenore (talk) 16:38, 4 October 2008 (UTC)

Voice types for Rosina
I know that she can be sung by both contraltos and mezzo-sopranos with coloratura techniques, but whoever keeps changing it to include contralto and mezzo-soprano needs to stop. This combination makes it very akward to read and can be confusing. For example, when I edited it back to "coloratura mezzo-soprano" it said,"coloratura contralto or mezzo-soprano." This would make it seem as if any mezzo-soprano can just sing this role. It needs to specify colorautra mezzo-soprano to be clear. If this issue was cleared up, however, it would be too long to read and look akward. I have tried to be realistic in choosing this selection, as anyone knows that Rosina is most often sung by coloratura mezzo-sopranos when not considering sopranos. Although I do love contraltos, that does not mean that they are the most common voice type in this role. Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Chrisfa678 (talk • contribs) 07:01, 26 December 2008


 * The role was written for contralto (Geltrude Righetti); this should be shown in the table of roles, otherwise it becomes a) inconsistent; b) diminishes information for the reader. The of 71.103.94.196 needs to be reversed.
 * The fact that Rosina is often performed by mezzo-sopranos and sopranos should be (and indeed is) covered in the section "History".
 * The recent edits of compound the problem by  the historic fact of Rosina's voice type. That edit needs to be reverted, not the least because that user's  introduced the (uncontroversial) phrase: "Famous contralto Rosinas include Ewa Podles" which, given the earlier removal of the contralto designation makes no sense.
 * In short, the table of roles should specify "contralto" as the voice type for Rosina, which should be reflected in the section "History" where alternative voice types for the role are mentioned.
 * Also: exactly the same applies to the role of Angelina in La Cenerentola, also created by Righetti; the table of roles in that article should be similarly changed. Michael Bednarek (talk) 09:08, 26 December 2008 (UTC)


 * I have reverted Chrisfa678's edits and rephrased. The article needs to state that the original role was written for a contralto. It is even specified as such in the original score, and can be referenced to numerous publications. Awkward or not, that is a fact, and deleting it from the article and then writing something completely untrue, i.e. "The role of Rosina, although written for a coloratura mezzo-soprano" to make it "support" the fact that it is most commonly sung by mezzo-sopranos does a great disservice both to Wikipedia and its readers. It is also highly confusing to the reader to click on the link for the first Rosina and find that she was a contralto. Voceditenore (talk) 13:58, 26 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Just as has been done for the role of Sesto in La Clemenza di Tito, the role of Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Dorabella in Così fan tutte, these roles were originally written for voice types that either did not exist or do not reflect modern choices of voices. Sesto was a castrato who is now done by a mezzo-soprano; Octavian, a soprano now a mezzo-soprano; Cherubino, mezzo-soprano did not exist; Dorabella, the same. The article in Tancredi for the title role says both contralto and mezzo-soprano because it is very common to find contraltos, such as Ewa Podleś, singing this role. Although Rosina could have been originally written for a contralto or a mezzo-soprano, there are hardly any contraltos who do sing this role with regularity. And as I have edited the previous section to reflect the historical fact of the contralto, and the term mezzo-soprano can sometimes be used just to cover all women with powerful lower registers, I have edited the table to reflect modern voice choices for the role as has been done in the above mentioned articles. The reason coloratura soprano is not added is for the fact it was mentioned in the "History" section of how this role being designated as a soprano came about. For future references I would like to know when exactly the term mezzo-soprano came into popular and accepted use in the Western World. Only then can one properly say that a role was designated as either or mezzo-soprano or a contralto or baritone or bass, when talking about baritones, by the composer. I was thinking of possibly using the term alto in order to cover both of these voices. But I am highly hesitant to this, more so than using just contralto, because of its use for either choirs or, what I have seen on other articles, boy altos. Please continue this discussion, as I want to show what is most understandable and visually pleasing to the average lay person. I would also need to see some sort of documentation or some other reputable sources that show Righetti was, in fact, a contralto.Chrisfa678 (talk) 17:48, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Chrisfa678/71.103.94.196 has once again removed contralto from the role table for Angelina, leaving only mezzo-soprano as the voice type. This makes it the fourth time he has removed this information which had been added or re-added by at least three other editors of this article. So much for seeking consensus. I find this regrettable, but there you have it. Voceditenore (talk) 09:39, 27 December 2008 (UTC)
 * What is "visually pleasing" should never influence accuracy or completeness of information. As for "reputable" documentation that Geltrude Righetti was a contralto, see . As I pointed out on Talk:La Cenerentola, the role tables used by the Opera Project reflect the original voice type for which the role was written, as well as the most common voice type currently used for the role, if they differ. Please stop repeatedly making these misleading changes, both here to La Cenerentola. You are also invited to take this issue to the Opera Project discussion page. Voceditenore (talk) 18:06, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
 * While the article states that Rosina is "occasionally" sung by a soprano, it's interesting that of the "selected recordings" only one features a non-soprano. Wouldn't it be fairer to say that from the late 19th Century through the mid-20th century the role was sung almost exclusively by sopranos? Markhh (talk) 18:08, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
 * I don't know about "almost exclusively", but certainly at the Metropolitan Opera, the majority of Rosinas up to the mid-20th appear to have been sopranos, including Marcella Sembrich who sang it the Met premiere in 1883. Although, I can't vouch for other houses, especially in Europe. Voceditenore (talk) 18:24, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

For whatever it's worth, I think the current solution, listing "mezzo-soprano" with a useful explanatory note, is perfect and I hope it will be retained. Best wishes, Markhh (talk) 19:45, 31 December 2008 (UTC)