Opera Scotland

Barbiere di Siviglia 1930Covent Garden Opera

Read more about the opera Barber of Seville

The new cast member in this run of The Barber was the Rosina, coloratura soprano Nora Gruhn, who had also sung Adele in Die Fledermaus, and the following year would add Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier. As with her predecessors, she did not sing Rossini's own composition for the lesson scene. 'Contro un cor' was composed for the original contralto range and was perhaps found not to transpose effectively to the higher voice. While Noël Eadie and Marguerite Anderson both inserted the Laughing Song from Auber's version of Manon Lescaut, Gruhn sang a famous set of variations by Mozart on the French song 'Ah, vous dirai-je maman'.

Cast details from a programme in the Edinburgh City Library.