Source: Some information on this page may have been sourced as part of the 2023 Wikimedia Australia Partnership Projects grant, with the purpose of improving and expanding the use of Wikidata on our website. Wikidata is a free and open knowledge base that can be read and edited by both humans and machines. Read more about this project here.
Filmed in black and white, this feature length production of Gioacchino Rossini’s comic opera “The Barber of Seville” in three acts, with libretto by Cesare Sterbini and based on the play by Pierre Beaumarchais, was shot in Rome and stars one of Italy’s most famous opera singers, Tito Gobbi, in the role of Figaro the town barber. Figaro is the unsung hero as he ingeniously plots and schemes his way around a love triangle between Count Almaviva (Ferruccio Tagliavini), the young and beautiful Rosina (Nelly Corradi) who the Count madly adores, and Dr Bartolo (Vito De Taranto), Rosina’s strict guardian who also fancies Rosina and wants to make her his wife. It is through Figaro’s amazing disguises and interferences that finally outwit Dr Bartolo, allowing the two lovers to eventually elope. Features the Orchestra and Chorus of the Opera of Rome conducted by Giuseppe Morelli and a supporting cast including Italo Tajo, Natalia Nicolini and Nino Mazziotti. Sung in Italian with no English subtitles. NB: Image quality is inconsistent (particularly in the beginning) and sound track is a bit scratchy but production is of historical value.
Content notification
Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.
Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.
How to watch
Collection
In ACMI's collection
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
318335
Language
Italian
Audience classification
G
Subject categories
Advertising, Film, Journalism, Mass Media & TV → Foreign language films
Feature films → Feature films - Italy
Music & Performing Arts → Operas
Music & Performing Arts → Operas - Film and video adaptations
Sound/audio
Sound
Colour
Black and White
Holdings
VHS; Access Print (Section 1)