This production of Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, staged by Coline Serreau, was presented at the Opera Bastille for the first time in 2002. It was the successful film director’s second opera project.

The international cast features one of the leading lyric mezzos working in the Rossini repertoire – American Joyce DiDonato sings Rosina. German-Italian star tenor Roberto Saccà takes the role of her seducer, Count Almaviva, and Czech baritone Dalibor Jenis, currently one of the best Figaros available, completes the leading trio.

Delicate Spanish bass baritone Carlos Chausson playing Bartolo, Rosina’s guardian, and Icelandic bass Kristinn Sigmundsson as the curious music teacher Basilio, provide suitable buffo material for the opera’s various comic scenes.

Bruno Campanella, one of the leading interpreters of the Belcanto repertoire worldwide led this musically excellent event from the pit.

French director Coline Serreau, best known for her film 'Three men and a baby' and her 70s feminist documentaries, sets the opera in a Seville under Osmanic occupation. For Serreau, the story of the imprisoned Rosina remains current in modern society where "the imprisonment of half of mankind is still the rule".

Cast:
- Rosina: Joyce Didonato
- Count D’Almaviva: Roberto Saccà
- Figaro: Dalibor Jenis
- Bartolo: Carlos Chausson
- Basilio: Kristinn Sigmundsson
 
Stage Director: Coline Serreau
Set: Jean-Marc Stehlé & Antoine Fontaine

Live recording from the Opéra National de Paris, 2002

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1
Picture Format: 16:9
DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC
Subtitle Languages: IT (Original Language), GB, DE, FR, ES
Running Time: 152 mins
FSK: 0
Region Code: 0
Worldwide available, excluding Japan