Writing to a friend in 1898, Giuseppe Verdi said of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville:

You may say things about Rossini and they may be true regarding the borrowings, the speed of composition and so forth, but I confess that I cannot help believing ‘The Barber of Seville’ for abundance of ideas, for verve and for truth of declamation the most beautiful opera buffa in existence.

And yet, this famous comic opera, first staged in 1816, ranks with La Traviata (1853) and the Rite of Spring (1913) as having had of the greatest opening night fiascos in musical history. Fortunately, at Melbourne Opera’s opening night of The Barber, there was not a cat to be seen, guitar strings remained whole, and there were no supporters of a rival composer (Paisiello) interjecting with catcalls.