Performed at the Lincoln Center. Conducted by Sarah Caldwell. The staging and costuming explicitly telegraphed the characters. For example, Rosina (Beverly Sills) has a gown with feathers and her room resembles a birdcage complete with a swing, telegraphing her as being confined like a bird.. Figaro (Alan Titus) looks like a barber pole, while the notary (Michael Rubino) has an inkwell on his hat. Dr. Bartolo (Donald Gramm) wears two pillars that are cracked after his plans to marry Rosina are thwarted. Tenor Henry Price as Almaviva sports books in his disguise as a student.

When Rosina falls in love with mysterious young suitor Lindoro, she must use all her cunning – and a little help from her local barber – to outwit her calculating guardian Dr Bartolo. Expect heart-melting serenades, ridiculous disguises and a fairytale ending waiting just out of reach. From the barber’s opening number ‘Largo al factotum,’ with its cry of ‘Figaro!,’ to Rosina’s feisty aria ‘Una voce poco fa,’ Gioachino Rossini’s comic opera is a riotously entertaining affair. Rafael Payare makes his House debut, and joins Christopher Willis in conducting a cast that includes Andrzej Filończyk, Aigul Akhmetshina, Laurence Brownlee, Konu Kim and Bryn Terfel.

23-year-old Gioachino Rossini completed his masterpiece IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA incredibly quickly – legend has it in just 13 days – which Rossini attributed to ‘facility and lots of instinct’. The opera, characterized by youthful energy and bold wit, has all the ingredients for comic chaos: an imprisoned young woman, her lecherous guardian and a young noble suitor. Skilfully plotting behind the scenes is Figaro, an irrepressible and inventive character in whom many have seen a resemblance to the young Rossini himself. The score fizzes with musical brilliance, from Figaro’s famous entrance aria to the frenzy of the Act I finale. This recording sees Joyce DiDonato (Rosina) bring literal meaning to the old theatrical motto Break a leg! She did just that in an earlier show but was determined to finish her commitment and was re-staged into the production to allow for the additional challenges that come when a leading lady in a lively physical role must wheel around the other performers...

The comedy generally known as “The Barber of Sevilla” is strongly recommended because it contains nothing offensive nor objectionable, and also that it appeals to everybody in its delightfully amusing humor. The cinematographic piece has been pantomimed with the greatest care by competent artists, who have been carefully selected and who have studiously striven to conform themselves to the masterpiece of Beaumarchais. We place also on sale a shortened edition of the same piece, in which the second, fifth and seventh tableaux are taken out. We give our customers the privilege of purchasing any of the tableaux taken out of the shortened edition, urging them to be careful to specify in their orders what tableau or tableaux they desire. In such case we advise first of all the Seventh Tableau, which terminates happily and brilliantly the piece and forms a fine finale to the cinematographic view.

Count Almaviva is in love with Rosina. However, she is currently staying with Dr. Bartolo – who desires to marry her. By using a series of disguises, Almaviva manages to pass letters to Rosina and serenade her with his beautiful voice. Dr. Bartolo does his best to stop Almaviva but is constantly thwarted. In the end, Count Almaviva marries Rosina and Dr. Bartolo comes to terms with his defeat.

A crafty barber acts as a go-between for a count in disguise and rescues Rosina from marriage with her guardian. An operatic comedy.

In a time when operas are often set to different contexts from the ones they were intended for, a philological production has its merits, representing both a rediscovery and a provocation. This Barbiere di Siviglia, which at first sight might appear old-fashioned, restores, in fact, to perfection the setting of an early 19th-centrury Italian theatre. It was a time when the glorious tradition of popular comedy, a direct descendant of the 16th-century "commedia dell'arte", was very much alive, and the singers entertained the audience with humour that was direct and catchy. Bepi Morassi's direction witnesses to the importance of that heritage, based on the improvising skills of actors that came from the common people and needed to communicate concepts of common social life, through colourful costumes, musical instruments and masks modelled on the archetypes of the day. Humour, which here triumphs, makes of this Barbiere di Siviglia, a truly entertaining visual and audio experience.

Reveals the immense new forces that were unleashed in New York.

Episode Seven of the New York: A Documentary. In the aftermath of World War II, southern African-Americans moved north and Puerto Rican immigrants poured into the city, a trend which would continue for the next thirty years. Robert Moses waged a campaign of urban renewal, including adding highways to the city, hastening white flight to the suburbs. The destruction of the old Penn Station in 1963 and the protests against Moses's plans for the Lower Manhattan Expressway led to the creation of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, ensuring the survival of New York's most architecturally important buildings and neighborhoods. Social and financial crises in the 1960s and 1970s took a toll on the city, but New York's revival since the 1970s has been enduring.

"In Memoriam" is thought-provoking and brings a viewer to tears all over again. Contains some incredible footage not seen elsewhere, including two unbelievable shots of the planes striking the towers. Also contains some new coverage of Rudy Guiliani's actions on the day of the attack - love him or hate him the city couldn't have asked for a better leader that day, and the footage bears this out.