Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (b. Florence, Italy, April 3, 1895; d. Beverly Hills, CA, March 16, 1968)

Composed 1816, arranged 1943; 6 minutes

With 16 operas already under his belt, the 23-year-old Gioachino Rossini turned in The Barber of Seville, still one of the best comic operas in the repertoire, in less than three weeks. His successor, Giuseppe Verdi thought it “the greatest opera buffa ever written.” It is the first opera by an Italian composer to maintain an uninterrupted place on the world’s opera stages, from its February 20, 1816 première in Rome to the present day. 

In 1943, Italian-born Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, who had just four years earlier fled state anti-Semitism for the United States, turned to The Barber and its most famous aria for a recital transcription. Having already landed a contract with MGM and begun a long Hollywood career, Castelnuovo-Tedesco dedicated his version for cello to Gregor Piatigorsky and the version for violin to Jascha Heifetz. In the aria, Figaro bursts onto the scene with the Largo al factotum, a whirlwind self-introduction in which Seville’s indispensable barber boasts of his wit, charm, and unstoppable energy. Both Rossini and his arranger fire off rapid patter, bounding leaps, and the famous repeated cries of “Figaro!” to paint a portrait of theatrical bravado—comic, swaggering, and irresistibly alive.

— All program notes copyright © 2026 Keith Horner. Comments welcomed: khornernotes@gmail.com