Le Barbier de Séville, ou La Précaution Inutile

Le Barbier de Séville, ou La Précaution Inutile ("The Barber of Seville or the Useless Precaution") is a comedy in four acts by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (usually referred to simply as "Beaumarchais", 1732-1799)[1], with original music by Antoine-Laurent Baudron (1742–1834)[2].

(The texts of the Beaumarchais play and the popular Rossini opera based on it, are both often referred to simply as Le Barbier de Seville, Barbier de Seville, or The Barber of Seville)

The original text

Conceived as a opéra comique[3] and written in 1772, rewritten as a four act play in 1773. It was the first of a trilogy of plays entitled Le Roman de la Famille Almaviva, with the others being La Folle Journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro[4] (1778) and L'Autre Tartuffe ou La Mère coupable (1792)[5].

First performed in Paris on 23 and 25 February, 1775 at the Comédie-Française and was published by Ruault, Paris, in the same year.

Translations and adaptations

Translated into Dutch as De Barbier van Seville, of De Onnutte Voorzorg, published in 1793.

It was twice adapted into an opera:

Il Barbiere di Siviglia, ovvero La Precauzione Inutile by Paisiello (1782).

Il Barbiere di Siviglia[6] by Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868) with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini (1784–1831). The première of Rossini's opera, under the title Almaviva, o sia L'inutile precauzione, was on 20 February 1816 at the Teatro Argentina, Rome.

Performance history in South Africa

1783: According to travel-writer Le Vaillant (cited by Fletcher, 1994: p. 18) a good production of Beaumarchais's play was done in French in the Cape in 1783. Performed (wholly or in part) in the Cape Town Barracks Theatre during the occupation by French troops sent to defend the Cape against the British Fleet (1781-1795), it was possibly the first production by them and it counts as one of the first documented performances in South Africa.

1804: Performed in the African Theatre by Het Fransche Liefhebbery Geselschap, a new French company, amalgamated with the ordinary French Theatre-lovers in the Cape, under the leadership of C.M. Villet on Saturday 2 April, repeated on 30 April - this time with the addition of Arlequin Afficheur (Desfountaines and Barré).

1824: Performed in Dutch as De Barbier van Seville, of De Onnutte Voorzorg, on 31 July in the African Theatre by the amateur company Honi Soit qui Mal y Pense, apparently with the overture of Rossini's opera and other music provided by Charles Etienne Boniface. It was accompanied by the one act play Jérome Pointu by Beaunoir (but wrongly accredited to "D'Orvigny" by F.C.L. Bosman, 1928: p. 279; or by his source).

1847: A "laughing pantomime[7]" called Barbier de Seville (sic) was performed in Buitekant Street, Cape Town by The Italian Circus of Signor Severo and Signor Dalle Case.