Rossini: The Barber of Seville, Act I – Analysis

Inside Bartolo’s house, a soldier’s disguise unsettles every carefully laid plan. Rossini draws the characters’ competing voices into a finale where bewilderment gives way to exhilarating musical confusion.

i Work Information

Composer:

Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868)

Title:

The Barber of Seville (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Act I

Year of composition:

1816

Premiere:

20 February 1816, Teatro Argentina, Rome, as part of the opera's first performance

Libretto:

Cesare Sterbini, after Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais's comedy Le Barbier de Séville

Genre:

Italian comic opera (opera buffa)

Musical context:

Early nineteenth-century Italian opera and the bel canto tradition

Structure:

Nine numbered musical sections joined by recitatives; the first includes the opening chorus and the Count's first cavatina

Tonality:

Individual numbers occupy different keys. The Act I finale begins and ends in C major, with its slow concertato in A-flat major.

Duration:

Approximately 80–100 minutes, depending on tempos, repetitions, and cuts

Voices and ensemble:

Vocal soloists, male chorus, orchestra, guitar, and instrumental accompaniment for recitatives

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Act I of Gioachino Rossini's The Barber of Seville is an extended demonstration of the composer's musical dramaturgy. Serenades, cavatinas, arias, duets, and recitatives introduce the comedy's principal characters, reveal their competing wishes, and prepare the first attempt to outwit Doctor Bartolo. Their separate plans eventually collide in the large ensemble finale, which brings the characters together inside the same house.

Each character is introduced through a distinctive musical manner. Count Almaviva initially speaks through lyrical song; Figaro arrives with irresistible rhythmic momentum and a torrent of words. Rosina gradually makes clear that beneath her supposed obedience lies a strong will of her own, while Basilio and Bartolo reveal different ways of exercising control.

These individual musical identities prepare the central challenge of the finale: several characters sharing the stage, each understanding the same events differently. Rossini arranges their responses so that the listener can follow who knows what, even when several voices sing together. The apparent disorder of the stage rests on an unusually precise musical design.

Recitatives are essential to that design. They carry the letters, explanations, and disguises upon which the plot depends. The self-contained numbers then allow theatrical time to expand: a character's attitude can be explored at length, or an exchange can gain speed as reactions multiply. The alternation between these different uses of musical time gives the long first act its coherence.

At the beginning, a single man sings beneath a window, hoping to reach the woman he loves. By the end, a roomful of people is singing, yet almost nobody understands why the situation has changed so abruptly. The musical course of Act I unfolds between these two moments.

Movements / Structure

Act I consists of nine numbered musical sections linked by recitatives. The opening scenes take place in the street outside Rosina's home. Later, inside the house, the characters' conflicting aims and the restrictions imposed by her guardian become increasingly apparent. Shorter solo and duet numbers prepare the large gathering of characters in the final ensemble.

Musical section	Principal musical material	Dramatic function
No. 1 — Introduzione	“Piano, pianissimo”; “Ecco ridente in cielo”	The serenade is prepared and the Count makes his first appearance
No. 2 — Cavatina	“Largo al factotum”	Figaro enters and presents himself
No. 3 — Canzone	“Se il mio nome saper voi bramate”	The Count introduces himself as Lindoro and receives a reply from Rosina
No. 4 — Duetto	“All’idea di quel metallo”	Count and Figaro agree on a plan involving a disguise
No. 5 — Cavatina	“Una voce poco fa”	Rosina declares her feelings and resolve
No. 6 — Aria	“La calunnia è un venticello”	Basilio explains his method of slander
No. 7 — Duetto	“Dunque io son”	Rosina actively advances the plan
No. 8 — Aria	“A un dottor della mia sorte”	Bartolo displays his pride and suspicion
No. 9 — Finale I	“Ehi di casa”; “Fredda ed immobile”; “Mi par d’esser con la testa”	The disguise tests every plan, leading to collective astonishment and an explosive ending

For much of the act, an individual singer or two cooperating characters dominate the musical scene. The finale changes those proportions. It brings everyone together and requires them to react to a situation that keeps shifting beneath their feet. Its remarkable length serves a dramatic purpose: Rossini has time to create confusion, suspend it, and release it again through music.

Musical Analysis

Before Dawn — The First Serenade

The stage action begins in a square in Seville before daybreak. Fiorello assembles musicians beneath Rosina's window on behalf of Count Almaviva. In the opening chorus, “Piano, pianissimo,” restrained delivery and careful rhythmic movement reflect the need to go about their business quietly. The comic contradiction is already clear: a conspicuous group has been engaged to provide a supposedly discreet declaration of love.

With “Ecco ridente in cielo,” the focus passes from the collective preparation to the tenor. The Count sings of approaching dawn and calls upon Rosina to appear. Long melodic phrases and florid passages give him room for a sustained personal address. Yet the hired musicians remind us that this apparently intimate declaration has been arranged as a performance. However thoughtfully it has been prepared, Rosina does not answer.

The departure of the musicians immediately overturns the mood. Once paid, they thank the Count so noisily that they ruin the discretion he had demanded. This first reversal establishes a recurring mechanism of the comedy: the practical consequences of a plan can destroy the effect its author intended.

“Largo al factotum” — Figaro Brings His City onto the Stage

Figaro's entrance sweeps away the lyrical atmosphere of the earlier scenes. In “Largo al factotum,” in C major and 6/8, the baritone announces how indispensable he is to everyone. The orchestra sustains a lively pulse, while the constantly shifting syllabic delivery depicts a man whose working life is one continuous stream of activity.

The repeated name “Figaro” becomes particularly revealing. At first it sounds like a boastful advertisement for the barber himself. As the name returns from every direction in the text, however, it represents a whole city calling on his services. Vocal virtuosity is placed at the service of character: the performer needs to convey both Figaro's delight in his popularity and the absurd scale of other people's demands.

The cavatina offers more than relentless acceleration. Distinct melodic and rhythmic areas alternate, while its harmonic course features Rossini's characteristic movement between major triads related by a third. William Rothstein has identified a full cycle of such relationships within the number. Matthew L. C. Boyle's recent study has also explored how the lively patter evokes aspects of the tarantella as a musical topic. This is an interpretation of particular features, not a claim that the entire aria is literally a tarantella.

Figaro advertises his ability to be everywhere at once, but the music also lets the listener sense the almost impossible demands of such a position. That dual character makes him an ideal intermediary for a romance that will soon require far more than a barber's ordinary services.

The Second Serenade — The First Answer

Figaro explains Rosina's circumstances to the Count, including Bartolo's intention to marry his ward. When another chance for contact arises, Almaviva sings “Se il mio nome saper voi bramate,” calling himself Lindoro, a young man without fortune or title.

The guitar accompaniment gives this second serenade a more intimate scale than the organised musical display of the opening. This time the exchange succeeds: Rosina answers from the window. Her brief vocal intervention turns a one-sided offering into a conversation between two people who are still physically separated.

The scene provides the emotional basis for the plan that follows. A disguise is not an end in itself: the Count needs a way of continuing inside the house the communication that has finally begun outside it.

“All’idea di quel metallo” — Different Interests, One Plan

The Count wants to reach Rosina, while Figaro expects handsome payment for his help. In “All’idea di quel metallo,” the two purposes come together without becoming identical. The tenor looks towards a meeting with his beloved; the baritone responds enthusiastically to the prospect of money.

The music stages the process of invention itself. Brief exchanges, quick delivery, and more sustained passages sung together allow a plan to take shape in real time. When Figaro approaches a speech-like parlante texture, the agility of the words matches the practical speed of his thinking. Recent scholarship has connected this kind of delivery to the calls of street vendors, as a possible social resonance rather than a literal reproduction of a Seville street scene.

The result is a scheme in which the Count will arrive as a soldier demanding accommodation, pretending to be drunk. The duet ends with a convincing sense of shared purpose. The finale will reveal how much more difficult it is to carry out the plan than to devise it.

“Una voce poco fa” — Rosina Makes Up Her Mind

Inside the house, Rosina receives her own substantial musical introduction. “Una voce poco fa” begins with her memory of Lindoro's voice. The opening E major supports a lyrical statement, but the cavatina soon moves beyond recollection towards Rosina's determination to win the man she loves.

In “Io sono docile,” she presents herself as gentle and obedient, only to explain what will happen if somebody obstructs her. A more animated movement and considerable vocal agility accommodate these contrasting aspects of her character. Ornament is not merely decorative: through articulation, phrasing, and the handling of the words, the singer can reveal the resolve beneath the outward courtesy.

Rossini originally wrote Rosina for a contralto, although mezzo-sopranos and sopranos have often performed the part. The distinction matters for vocal colour and for the voice's place within ensembles, not only for the display of virtuosity. Later in the act, Rosina's actions will confirm that she has no intention of waiting for someone else to make every decision on her behalf.

“La calunnia” — Slander as a Musical Process

Basilio tells Bartolo that the Count is in Seville and proposes dealing with him through slander. In “La calunnia è un venticello,” he presents this method almost as a professional technique. The text starts with a barely perceptible breeze and ends with a roar powerful enough to crush its victim.

The orchestra follows the idea through a gradual accumulation of force. Rhythmic repetition, greater instrumental participation, and expanding dynamics do more than represent the climax: they create it in musical time. The listener experiences the rumour's expansion as the aria itself grows in volume and power.

The comic effect rests in part on Basilio's grave confidence when explaining an ethically sinister plan. The earnestness of his argument is thrown into relief by the theatrical excess of the climax. This is an individual character portrait which also prepares the suspicion and surveillance that dominate Bartolo's behaviour.

“Dunque io son” — Rosina Is Already Ahead

In the duet “Dunque io son,” Figaro expects to advise a young woman about the first steps she should take towards her beloved. He soon discovers that Rosina has already written the letter he was about to recommend.

The musical dialogue is built from quick questions and answers, short reactions, and moments when the two voices move together. The comic reversal emerges from the timing of their exchanges. Just as Figaro prepares to offer his guidance, Rosina produces the solution herself.

Their partnership establishes that she is more than the object of other people's schemes. She contributes to their invention. That independence will acquire fresh importance when the disguised Count enters the household.

“A un dottor della mia sorte” — Bartolo's Certainty

Bartolo returns home, notices small changes, and demands explanations about paper and ink. In “A un dottor della mia sorte,” in E-flat major, he cites his age, learning, and experience as proof that he cannot easily be deceived.

The fast syllabic delivery associated with the basso buffo packs warning upon warning into closely organised musical phrases. Every word must be clearly articulated if the rising irritation is not to obscure its meaning. The orchestra maintains a firm pulse while leaving room for the verbal detail.

The audience already knows that Figaro has taken Rosina's letter. Bartolo's claim to superior knowledge consequently achieves the opposite theatrical effect: it exposes the distance between what he believes he controls and what has escaped him. The scene is ready for the arrival of the supposed soldier.

The Finale — Enter the Soldier

The Count appears as a soldier demanding lodging in Bartolo's house and behaving as though intoxicated. With “Ehi di casa, buona gente,” Figaro's plan passes from conversation to practical trial. Almaviva makes demands, Bartolo refuses, and the exchanges immediately turn confrontational.

The opening stages of the finale are dominated by short phrases, interruptions, and rapid shifts between characters. The Count must portray drunkenness without losing musical coherence. Bartolo produces the documents which exempt him from the obligation to quarter soldiers, yet every attempt to impose a rule produces another objection.

To Rosina, the visitor is Lindoro; to Bartolo, an unwelcome soldier; to the audience, the Count under a new disguise. These differences in knowledge allow Rossini to combine reactions without making them identical. Two characters may sing at the same time while responding to different understandings of what is happening.

The noise grows as others become involved. Figaro tries to manage a scheme that has moved beyond his predictions, while Basilio and Berta enlarge the group that must be accommodated musically. Short exchanges give way to larger combinations of voices. Precise orchestral coordination keeps the shared pulse clear amid the staged disorder.

The Authorities Arrive — A Reversal of Power

The arrival of an officer and soldiers seems about to end the dispute. Public authority has been called in where Bartolo's household authority has failed. The officer prepares to arrest the stranger, until Almaviva quietly reveals his true identity.

The officer's manner changes at once. Bartolo and the others cannot explain the reversal. Rather than driving straight into the fastest music of the finale, Rossini suspends the action, prolonging the characters' astonishment within a strikingly slow ensemble.

This change also reveals an important social dimension of the comedy. Earlier, the Count had presented himself as an impoverished Lindoro in the hope of being loved without the influence of his title. Now his actual rank is sufficient to prevent his arrest. That privileged knowledge, available to the officer and the audience but not the other characters, determines the musical situation that follows.

“Fredda ed immobile” — Astonishment Held in Place

“Fredda ed immobile” forms the slow centre of the finale, a concertato in which several voices take part in a shared musical development. The characters describe themselves as frozen like statues. Stage action appears to halt, although the music continues to move.

The ensemble enters A-flat major. As William Rothstein explains, the finale as a whole begins and ends in C major; the distant A-flat major of the slow movement sets up a characteristic Rossinian tonal contrast. The C-major and A-flat-major triads share the note C, but the move to the new key is heard as a distinct change of perspective.

The slower pace allows the individual vocal entries to register. Vocal range matters here as well. Alberto Zedda, editor of the critical editions, observed that the practice of some sopranos singing Rosina's entrance an octave higher can compromise both the suspended quality of astonishment and the imitative relationship with the voices that follow.

The passage becomes an extended portrait of collective bewilderment. Each character reacts to the apparent reversal, although they do not all possess the same information. The slow development makes their inability to act palpable before the comedy recovers its momentum.

“Mi par d’esser con la testa” — The Closing Stretta

After the slow concertato, the music returns to C major and launches into the lively stretta, the closing section of the large ensemble. The characters compare the turmoil inside their heads to a workshop filled with the pounding of hammers and anvils.

Rossini sustains this image through repeated rhythmic patterns, insistent vocal phrases, and increasingly dense instrumental combinations. Accented orchestral interventions reinforce the workshop metaphor, while a steady pulse allows the voices to remain coordinated at high speed.

Repetition does not mean that the music stands still. The listener recognises the underlying rhythmic mechanism as the vocal combinations and dynamic levels change. The sense of an approaching climax emerges from accumulation and recombination, rather than from sheer loudness alone.

The return to C major completes the finale's tonal course, though the dramatic conflict remains unresolved. The music reaches its conclusion before the story does. Not everyone in Bartolo's house knows what has happened. Act II must carry these misunderstandings towards their resolution.

Musical Dramaturgy and Performance

From Solo Entrances to the Large Ensemble

The first act gradually changes the scale of musical communication. The Count begins with a private declaration; Figaro presents himself to the city; Rosina states her desires; Basilio and Bartolo display their habits of thought and action. Their individual numbers allow the listener to recognise each musical personality before encountering it in a crowded ensemble.

The duets provide an intermediate stage. The Count and Figaro come to an agreement despite wanting different things; Rosina and Figaro collaborate through a comic reversal between the supposed adviser and the woman receiving his advice. In the finale, these separate relationships converge. Sharing musical time does not mean that the characters share an understanding of events.

This is a statement about the dramatic functions of the numbers, not a claim that themes from every earlier aria literally recur in the finale. The coherence lies chiefly in the characters' relationships and Rossini's handling of theatrical time.

Recitative Keeps the Plot Moving

Between the self-contained numbers, recitatives move the action through flexible sung speech over spare instrumental accompaniment. Plans are discussed, letters pass from hand to hand, and information emerges that will alter the next scene. The relative freedom of delivery enables performers to shape small reactions and sudden changes of intention.

When a cavatina or a larger ensemble begins, theatrical time changes. Music can dwell on a decision, repeat a telling phrase, or organise several opposing perspectives at once. A complete hearing of Act I reveals how the functions complement each other: recitative carries the practical action forward, while the organised numbers make room for its implications.

Orchestral Clarity and Comic Precision

In lyrical passages the orchestra supports sustained vocal phrasing and provides clear melodic accompaniment. During rapid confrontations, strings maintain rhythmic momentum, while winds supply changes of colour and pointed interjections. The guitar in the second serenade serves the Count's private communication; keyboard accompaniment in the recitatives supports the flexibility of dialogue.

In the finale, the orchestration must combine numerous voices without making their words unintelligible. As the volume and activity increase, coordination between singers and conductor becomes all the more important. Comic disorder is not produced by genuine musical confusion: it depends on exact coordination which allows the stage to appear out of control.

🪶 A Chapter in the Life of the Work

The Score That Regained Its Lightness

In 1968, more than 150 years after the premiere of The Barber of Seville, Ricordi published a new critical edition of the opera. Its editor, the Italian conductor and musicologist Alberto Zedda, had identified problems in the score handed down through established performance practice. The opera was staged throughout the world, but its long life had also accumulated changes to orchestration, dynamics, articulation, and phrasing.

Zedda persuaded the publisher to support a renewed examination of the sources. The project drew upon Rossini's own manuscript score and early copies and editions. Among them were a manuscript copy held by the New York Public Library and copies produced by the Cencetti copying establishment, now preserved in Rome, Parma, and Paris, as well as sources from Naples and Florence. Comparing these documents made it possible to distinguish elements of the early musical text from changes introduced during its subsequent transmission.

The 1968 edition helped restore a more transparent balance between voices and orchestra. Later interventions had sometimes thickened the orchestral sound and altered indications of dynamics and articulation. Returning to the sources was therefore about more than selecting the correct notes. It affected how quickly a singer's words could move, how clearly a reaction could be heard, and how the ensemble worked as theatre.

Zedda himself offered a particularly revealing example from the Act I finale. In “Fredda ed immobile,” Rosina, originally a contralto role, enters in a range carefully related to the voices that follow. He observed that if a soprano transposes this entry up an octave, the hushed sense of astonishment can be lost and the imitative relationship between the parts disturbed. A performance decision that may appear small can transform the character of an entire ensemble.

The editorial investigation did not end in 1968. In 2009 Ricordi and the Fondazione Rossini published a thoroughly revised critical edition, again prepared by Zedda. Over the intervening four decades, further sources had come to light and scholarly approaches had developed. The revision did more than correct details: it also provided a fuller account of the opera's performance history and of variations Rossini himself wrote for different singers.

The journey from the 1968 edition to the revision of 2009 shows how a familiar opera can be reconsidered through its surviving documents. Act I may sound immediately recognisable, but vocal placement, small differences in register, and the clarity of the accompaniment can make a genuine difference to the performance. In the finale, where so many characters attempt to assert themselves at once, careful attention to the sources helps reveal just how precisely Rossini organised the apparent chaos.

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🎧 Listening Guide

Begin by comparing the hushed chorus “Piano, pianissimo” with the Count's extended serenade “Ecco ridente in cielo.” The chorus tries to remain discreet; the Count wants to attract Rosina's attention. Her failure to answer gives the scene its dramatic point.

In “Largo al factotum,” follow the 6/8 pulse, the repeated cries of “Figaro,” and the increasing density of the words. In the second serenade, listen for the guitar accompaniment and the point at which Rosina answers Lindoro. For the first time, their exchange becomes reciprocal.

In “Una voce poco fa,” notice how the opening lyricism becomes more animated when Rosina describes what she is prepared to do to achieve her aims. In “La calunnia,” follow the expansion of the orchestral sound: identify how repeated figures lead from a restrained opening to the final outburst.

In the finale, track the arrival of successive characters and changes in texture. When do you hear one singer, when do short exchanges take over, and when does a larger ensemble form? The Count's disclosure of his identity to the officer prepares the dramatic change that follows.

In “Fredda ed immobile,” listen for the slower tempo, the new tonal region, and the vocal entries within the concertato. Then, in the stretta “Mi par d’esser con la testa,” follow the persistent shared pulse, the repetitions, and the expansion of orchestral force. The contrast between suspended astonishment and explosive movement is the act's decisive listening landmark.

🎶 Further Listening

• Claudio Abbado — Teresa Berganza, Luigi Alva, Hermann Prey, Enzo Dara, Paolo Montarsolo; London Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Grammophon, 1971. A useful account for comparing vocal clarity and orchestral movement, and for hearing Rosina in a lower female voice.
• Alceo Galliera — Maria Callas, Luigi Alva, Tito Gobbi; Philharmonia Orchestra, EMI/Warner, 1957. Callas's Rosina offers a perspective on the soprano tradition, particularly through her handling of the words, phrasing, and ornamentation.
• Ralf Weikert — Kathleen Battle, Rockwell Blake, Leo Nucci, Enzo Dara, Ferruccio Furlanetto; Metropolitan Opera, 1989. The selected live stage recording makes it possible to relate the music to the characters' visible reactions, especially throughout the extended finale.

📚 Further Reading

• Janet Johnson, “Il barbiere di Siviglia,” in The Cambridge Companion to Rossini, edited by Emanuele Senici, Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 159–174. For the opera's theatrical and musical identity within the comic tradition.
• William Rothstein, “Common-tone Tonality in Italian Romantic Opera: An Introduction,” Music Theory Online 14/1, 2008. For chromatic-third relations, including observations on Act I and its finale.
• Matthew L. C. Boyle, “A lazzarone Figaro? Musical Neapolitanisms in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia,” Intégral 38, 2025, pp. 1–24. For the rhythmic and social character of Figaro's music.
• Alberto Zedda, critical edition of Il barbiere di Siviglia, Ricordi, 1968; revised edition Ricordi–Fondazione Rossini, 2009. For the musical text, its sources, the surviving variations, and the performance consequences of editorial decisions.

🔗 Related Works

• Gioachino Rossini — The Barber of Seville, Overture. The self-contained orchestral opening reveals a different aspect of Rossini's rhythmic design and has a source history of its own.
• Giovanni Paisiello — The Barber of Seville. The earlier setting invites comparison between two approaches to comic opera on the same dramatic subject.
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — The Marriage of Figaro, K. 492. Its extended ensembles and continuation of the characters' story offer a particularly illuminating comparison.
• Gioachino Rossini — L'italiana in Algeri. Its ensemble writing reveals other ways in which Rossini organises theatrical bewilderment.
• Gaetano Donizetti — Don Pasquale. This later comic opera provides a parallel in disguise, generational conflict, and rapid syllabic writing.

🎼 Closing Reflection

At the beginning of Act I, a man sings beneath a closed window and waits for a reply. Before long, the voice he longs to hear has a presence of its own, while the people around her continue making plans for her future.

By the end, the room is full of voices trying to account for what has happened. Music unites them for a moment without erasing their different versions of the truth. In that shared space, Rossini's comedy becomes more than speed and laughter: it offers the pleasure of watching people who, even while singing together, remain absorbed in their separate worlds.

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📖 Bibliography and Sources

This analysis draws upon the libretto and documented structure of Act I, official descriptions of the critical editions, and specialist studies of Figaro, tonal relations, and the finale. The account of Zedda's editorial work is based on Ricordi's published documentation and the editor's own archive; it does not imply direct examination of every manuscript or the complete critical commentary.

Primary Dramatic Source

Cesare Sterbini, Almaviva, o sia L'inutile precauzione, Rome: Crispino Puccinelli, 1816. First printed libretto, catalogued by the University of Bologna's Corago database.

Scores and Critical Editions

Gioachino Rossini, Il barbiere di Siviglia, edited by Alberto Zedda, Ricordi, 1968; revised edition Ricordi–Fondazione Rossini, 2009. The editorial history and main source materials were checked against Ricordi's official description.

Gioachino Rossini, Il barbiere di Siviglia, historical scores and the digital catalogue entry for Act I, IMSLP. These provide pointers to available musical sources; this editorial review does not replace systematic collation against the full critical score.

Secondary Musicological Sources

William Rothstein, “Common-tone Tonality in Italian Romantic Opera: An Introduction,” Music Theory Online 14/1, 2008, especially §§18–21.

Matthew L. C. Boyle, “A lazzarone Figaro? Musical Neapolitanisms in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia,” Intégral 38, 2025, pp. 1–24.

Janet Johnson, “Il barbiere di Siviglia,” in Emanuele Senici (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Rossini, Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 159–174. Included as verified further reading; the chapter is not represented as having been read in full during this editorial stage.

Alberto Zedda, “Problemi di interpretazione rossiniana,” Archivio Alberto Zedda. The editor's own observations on Rosina's register, octave transposition, and performance practice.

Audiovisual Documentation

Metropolitan Opera, Il barbiere di Siviglia, conducted by Ralf Weikert, stage production by John Cox, recorded in 1989 and issued by Deutsche Grammophon. Cast and production details are documented in library and recording catalogues and on the original release packaging.

Note on performing versions: Rosina was originally written for contralto. Transpositions, octave displacements, ornamentation, and cuts may distinguish individual productions from the original musical text and from one another.