The Barber of Seville is part of Glyndebourne Open House – a weekly series of free operas, available on YouTube. The Barber of Seville is the glittering operatic jewel in Rossini’s musical crown, one of the great comic operas of all time – the greatest of all, according to no less an authority than Verdi. This new philosophy gives us a heroine – the spirited Rosina – quite unlike any other, a young woman absolutely in control of her romantic destiny, whatever the men around her might think. It also helped shape one of opera’s most charismatic heroes – the quick-thinking and even quicker-singing barber Figaro, whose ‘Largo al factotum’ has become one of the best-loved arias in the repertoire.