Il barbiere di Siviglia

Rossini had a few weeks to write the opera for the Teatro Argentina in Rome and called it Almaviva, ossia L'inutile precauzione so as not to challenge Paisiello, whose setting of the same Beaumarchais comedy was still loved. The first night, 20 February 1816, went badly: a broken string, a singer falling through a trapdoor and a cat wandering on stage, with Paisiello's supporters making the most of all of it. The second performance was a triumph. Rossini reused an overture already heard with two earlier operas, and it has stayed attached to this one.