Recommended Reading
Compiled by Andrew Eggert
Beaumarchais, Pierre de. The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro. Translated by John Wood. Viking Press (Penguin Classics Series), 1964.
ISBN 0140441336.
Perhaps the best introduction to The Barber of Seville is the play on which the opera is based. Written by French playwright Beaumarchais, the original text inspired the energy and wit of Rossini's most popular comic opera. Many translations are available, but the classic by John Wood is presented in a single volume with The Marriage of Figaro , Beaumarchais' play that became the great opera by Mozart.
Senici, Emanuele, editor. The Cambridge Companion to Rossini. Cambridge University Press, 2004.
ISBN 0521001951.
One excellent source only recently released in paperback is The Cambridge Companion to Rossini . This collection of essays begins with an introduction to Rossini's life and the development of his musical style, and then features information about all of his major operas, including a chapter devoted to The Barber of Seville .
Toye, Francis. Rossini: The Man and His Music. Dover Publications, 1987.
ISBN 0486253961.
Long considered the definitive Rossini biography in English, Francis Toye's volume traces the highs and lows of Rossini's musical life. An engaging read, this biography captures the spark of genius behind great works like The Barber of Seville ? but also examines why so great an artist would decide to renounce opera composition at age thirty-seven while still at the height of his musical powers.
Gossett, Philip, et al. The New Grove Masters of Italian Opera: Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, Verdi, Puccini. W. W. Norton & Company, 1997.
ISBN 0393303616.
For those interested in learning more about the Italian operatic tradition throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Grove has published a single source that gives an overview of five major composers. But the section on Rossini is of particular interest, as it was written by Philip Gossett, the musicologist from the University of Chicago who has been recognized world-wide for his contributions to the study of Rossini.
Osborne, Charles. The Bel Canto Operas of Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini. Amadeus Press, 2003.
ISBN 0931340845.
For the opera enthusiast, this volume presents an exhaustive listing of all 39 operas known to have been composed by Rossini, as well as analyses of the source, libretto, and music of each opera ? plus information about all the operas written by Donizetti and Bellini, the other great composers of the bel canto style. The volume is more catalog than interpretation, and its detailed information will be most interesting to those already familiar with Rossini's works.
Servadio, Gaia. Rossini. Carroll & Graf, 2003.
ISBN 0786711957.
The British art and music historian Gaia Servadio delves deeply into Rossini's personal life in her recent biography. In examining the struggles, both psychological and financial, that plagued his career as a composer, she aims to overturn the popular myth that success came easy ? and paints a complex portrait of an artist, both serious and comical, whose life spanned the period from Beethoven to Wagner.
