YOUTHFUL HILARITY

GEORGE COLERICK discusses comedy in
Giuseppe Verdi's early opera 'Un Giorno di Regno'

Whilst still only twenty-one, Rossini had adapted Beaumarchais' comedy The Barber of Seville to make a historic opera. Its success was related to a lively plot with two young would-be lovers outwitting foolish opposition from an elderly Pantaloon character. It was essentially an Italian Harlequinade, a spirit that had passed into musical comedy-farce, opera buffa. In The Barber, it was spiced with such diversions as a graphic presentation of a rumour and singing lesson given by a young lover incognito...

GIUSEPPE VERDI

HUMOUR