Rossini transcription·Opera in the drawing room·Virtuoso elaboration·Popular source material
At a glance
Catalogue
Op. 63
Form
Fantasia
About the piece
A fantasy on themes from Rossini's Barber of Seville, one of the most popular operas of the age.
Before recording, the opera fantasy served a genuine function beyond display: it was how people who could not attend the theatre came to know the music. A skilled amateur at a piano could reproduce, in condensed and decorated form, an evening's worth of opera.
The composer
Sigismond Thalberg
1812–1871
Sigismond Thalberg was an Austrian composer and one of the most distinguished virtuoso pianists of the 19th century.
