A Book of Operas | Page 6

but at early dawn, with a
"sweet concert," and to the instruments of Fiorello's musicians tunes "a
deploring dump." It is the cavatina "Ecco ridente in cielo." The
musicians, rewarded by Almaviva beyond expectations, are profuse and
long-winded in their expression of gratitude, and are gotten rid of with
difficulty. The Count has not yet had a glimpse of Rosina, who is in the
habit of breathing the morning air from the balcony of her prison house,
and is about to despair when Figaro, barber and Seville's factotum,
appears trolling a song in which he recites his accomplishments, the
universality of his employments, and the great demand for his services.
("Largo al factotum dello città.") The Count recognizes him, tells of his
vain vigils in front of Rosina's balcony, and, so soon as he learns that
Figaro is a sort of man of all work to Bartolo, employs him as his
go-between. Rosina now appears on the balcony. Almaviva is about to
engage her in conversation when Bartolo appears and discovers a
billet-doux which Rosina had intended to drop into the hand of her
Lindoro. He demands to see it, but she explains that it is but a copy of
the words of an aria from an opera entitled "The Futile Precaution," and
drops it from the balcony, as if by accident. She sends Bartolo to
recover it, but Almaviva, who had observed the device, secures it, and
Bartolo is told by his crafty ward that the wind must have carried it
away. Growing suspicious, he commands her into the house and goes
away to hasten the preparations for his wedding, after giving orders that
no one is to be admitted to the house save Don Basilio, Rosina's
singing-master, and Bartolo's messenger and general mischief-maker.
The letter which Rosina had thus slyly conveyed to her unknown lover

begged him to contrive means to let her know his name, condition, and
intentions respecting herself. Figaro, taking the case in hand at once,
suggests that Almaviva publish his answer in a ballad. This the Count
does ("Se il mio nome saper"), protesting the honesty and ardor of his
passion, but still concealing his name and station. He is delighted to
hear his lady-love's voice bidding him to continue his song. (It is the
phrase, "Segui, o caro, deh segui così," which sounded so monstrously
diverting at the first representation of the opera in Rome.) After the
second stanza Rosina essays a longer response, but is interrupted by
some of the inmates of the house. Figaro now confides to the Count a
scheme by which he is to meet his fair enslaver face to face: he is to
assume the rôle of a drunken soldier who has been billeted upon Dr.
Bartolo, a plan that is favored by the fact that a company of soldiers has
come to Seville that very day which is under the command of the
Count's cousin. The plan is promptly put into execution. Not long after,
Rosina enters Dr. Bartolo's library singing the famous cavatina, "Una
voce poco fà," in which she tells of her love for Lindoro and proclaims
her determination to have her own way in the matter of her heart, in
spite of all that her tyrannical guardian or anybody else can do. This
cavatina has been the show piece of hundreds of singers ever since it
was written. Signora Giorgi-Righetti, the first Rosina, was a contralto,
and sang the music in the key of E, in which it was written. When it
became one of Jenny Lind's display airs, it was transposed to F and
tricked out with a great abundance of fiorituri. Adelina Patti in her
youth used so to overburden its already florid measures with ornament
that the story goes that once when she sang it for Rossini, the old
master dryly remarked: "A very pretty air; who composed it?" Figaro
enters at the conclusion of Rosina's song, and the two are about to
exchange confidences when Bartolo enters with Basilio, who confides
to the old doctor his suspicion that the unknown lover of Rosina is the
Count Almaviva, and suggests that the latter's presence in Seville be
made irksome by a few adroitly spread innuendoes against his character.
How a calumny, ingeniously published, may grow from a whispered
zephyr to a crashing, detonating tempest, Basilio describes in the buffo
air "La calunnia"--a marvellous example of the device of crescendo
which in this form is one of Rossini's inventions. Bartolo prefers his
own plan of compelling his ward to marry him at once. He goes with

Basilio to draw up a marriage agreement, and Figaro, who has
overheard their talk, acquaints Rosina with its purport. He also tells her
that she shall soon see her lover face to face if she will but send