The Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution (Il barbiere di Siviglia, ossia L'inutile precauzione) is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's comedy Le Barbier de Séville (1775), which was originally an opéra comique, or a mixture of spoken play with music. The première (under the title Almaviva, or the Futile Precaution) took place on 20 February 1816, at the Teatro Argentina, Rome..
Rossini's Barber has proven to be one of the greatest masterpieces of comedy within music, and has been described as the opera buffa of all "opere buffe". Even after two hundred years, its popularity on the modern opera stage attests to that greatness.
An opera based on the play had previously been composed by Giovanni Paisiello, another was composed in 1796 by Nicolas Isouard and by Francesco Morlacchi in 1816. Though the work of Paisiello triumphed for a time, Rossini's later version alone has stood the test of time and continues to be a mainstay of operatic repertoire.
Anne Akiko Meyers (born May 15, 1970 in San Diego, California) is an American concert violinist. Meyers has toured and collaborated with a number of symphony orchestras and Il Divo, Chris Botti and Wynton Marsalis. Meyers tours with a 1730 Stradivarius violin called the 'Royal Spanish'. She is also the owner of a 1697 Stradivarius called the "Molitor", which is purported to have been owned by Napoleon Bonaparte. She purchased the 'Molitor' from Tarisio Auctions on October 14, 2010 for US$3,600,000, the highest recorded auction price for any musical instrument in history until the Lady Blunt was sold on June 20, 2011. Meyers was featured on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann on October 26, 2010.
Meyers was born in San Diego, California. Raised in Southern California she studied with Shirley Helmick, and then went on to study with Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld at the Colburn School of Performing Arts in Los Angeles, California. She then proceeded to study with Josef Gingold at Indiana University and Dorothy DeLay, Felix Galimir and Masao Kawasaki at the Juilliard School in New York City. Combining her junior and senior high school years and graduating early from the Juilliard School at the age of 20, she was touring the world and recorded exclusively for RCA Red Seal.[unreliable source?]
Somewhere between life and death lies revenge.
Plot
Totò è un giovane della profonda provincia pugliese, ha una motocicletta tirata sempre a lucido e frequenta un bar chiamato "Da Elvis". Incontra spesso amici e conoscenti nel salone di barbiere del paese, gestito da un patito del rock che dispensa saggezza spicciola. Ha un irrefrenabile bisogno di dare uno sbocco alla sua esuberante e misconosciuta fantasia in quell'angolo di sud Italia tanto lontano dai suoi sogni.
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Romantic drama following the fortunes of a drifter named Beaudray Demerille (Peter Fonda) who wins a young orphan named Wanda (14 year old Brooke Shields) in a poker game and takes her gold prospecting in the Grand Canyon.
Keywords: 1950s, character-name-in-title, colorado-river, convertible, crooked-gambling, female-gunfighter, ghost, gold-digger, gold-mine, grand-canyon
Beaudray Demerille: The bet's fifty dollars, pal.::Card Hustler: You gotta honor my marker.::Beaudray Demerille: I wouldn't honor your mama.
Wanda Nevada: Do you think we're headin' in the right direction?::Beaudray Demerille: We wouldn't be headin' in this direction if it weren't right.
Wanda Nevada: Why do we always have to do it your way?::Beaudray Demerille: Because I got all the money and the guns.
Old Prospector: What are you prospectin'?::Beaudray Demerille: Oh, ah, silver...::Wanda Nevada: ...and gold!::Beaudray Demerille: Shh!::Old Prospector: Everyone knows there ain't no gold in the Grand Canyon!
Beaudray Demerille: Everyone knows there ain't no gold in the Grand Canyon.
Wanda Nevada: Watch Out! He's got a derringer!::The Barber: Don't shoot! This is just a comb! See? [runs the comb across his bald head]
Plot
Soon after the Great War, the Provence village of Salezes gets a new boys' teacher: Mr. Pascal, a war hero with a diploma from a teachers' college. He rejects old methods: boys' sitting still with arms folded memorizing facts. He uses modern methods: he becomes their guide. The boys build a water-powered electric generator, interview their parents about shoe-making and cooking, draw, write poetry, and, after Pascal brings a box of type, put their own magazine together, printed on the backs of old ballots. Their new interest in critical thinking stirs opposition from the mayor and others. The teacher offers a deal: if even one student fails the national exam, he'll resign. All eyes are on Albert, an older youth who has failed three times.
Plot
Finding a man alone in the desert, Marshal Tom is relieved - of his horse, clothes and water. When he catches up to Raven, he finds him dying from drinking bad water. When he gets to Gunsight, everyone thinks that he is the outlaw Raven and he plays it out so that he can end lawlessness.
Keywords: arizona, church, contaminated-water, desert, escape, fight, frameup, gunfire, horse-thief, impersonation
Plot
Young, naive Luisa Ginglebusher, who loves fairy tales, leaves the Budapest orphanage to become a movie usherette. Soon she befriends paternal waiter Detlaff and not so paternal Konrad, a meat-packing millionaire. Uninterested in Konrad's rich gifts, Luisa schemes to be a "good fairy" and divert some of this wealth to poor stranger Dr. Sporum. But it's not that simple...
Keywords: based-on-play, coming-of-age, foreign-language-adaptation, orphan, usherette
Konrad: I can use one honest lawyer, but don't overdo it.
Konrad: When I'm full of Dutch courage, I behave very Frenchly.
Dr. Schultz: I see... and what is it you're looking for, Mr. Schlipkohl?::Schlapkohl: Schlapkohl. Usherettes! To show the customers to their seats. They wear gorgeous uniforms, I designed them myself. A big hussar's hat, a little cloak, and pants with...::Dr. Schultz: Pants?::Schlapkohl: ...with stripes. Very effective.::Dr. Schultz: I dare say. The, uh, the pants, I mean, they're not too tight?::Schlapkohl: That depends entirely on the girls, the pants are all the same size.
Dr. Schultz: Would you like to be an usherette, Luisa?::Luisa: Oh, yes, ma'am.::Dr. Schultz: Do you know what an usherette is?::Luisa: N-n-no, ma'am.
Dr. Sporum: Never let it be said that a Sporum ever refused the request of a Ginglebusher.
Luisa: [In an energetic telling of a fairy tale for the other orphans] Wampa wampa, Wumpa wumpa, Eenie meenie minie mo; Sweet and faithful Rosalinda, Take me where I want to go.
Plot
Mr. Baldwin was the possessor of an unusual pair of side-whiskers. He was very proud of them. He calls on Miss Hegg and presents her with his photo. She is very fond of him. His next call is on Miss Lucy Pining, a friend of Miss Hegg and he also gives her a photo of himself and his glowing face adornments. He cannot make up his mind which old young lady he likes better. On general principles he strolls into a barber shop to get spruced up. The barber, a Frenchman, misunderstands Baldwin's order, but Baldwin, who has fallen asleep is not aware of the fact until he is awakened by a frightful pulling on his face, and then he sees that the unknowing barber had cut off one of his whiskers. There is nothing left for him, but to have the other one cut also. He rows with the barber and gets kicked out. He goes on the street and meets Miss Hegg. He accosts her, but she runs away from him, not knowing him. He then runs across Miss Pining and attempts to speak to her, but she does the same as Miss Hegg. The two ladies meet a policeman and tell him of the strange man. Just then Baldwin comes up and they point him out to the cop and he chases him through the streets. The ladles go to Miss Hegg's house. Baldwin had sought refuge in her garden and climbed through the window. The ladies see him and beat him up with their fists and sofa pillows until Baldwin is all in. He at last gets them to understand and he exits vowing never to see them again, at the same time bemoaning the loss of his beautiful whiskers.