The opera arrives in Panama after a successful season in Central América.

A troupe of renowned Italian and Argentinian opera singers will take part in Gioacchino Rossini's "The Barber of Seville", on Thursday, March 15 at Anayansi Theater at 8:00 p.m.

The opera is the first part of the Figaro trilogy by French playwright Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais. The original Beaumarchais version was first performed in 1775, in Paris at the Comédie Française at the Tuileries Palace.

Rossini is well known for his fast work at composition, and true to his style, all the music for Il Barbiere di Siviglia was completed in under three weeks; though the famous overture was actually borrowed from a prior Rossini opera, “Aureliano in Palmira”. Barbiere was first performed on February 20, 1816, to disastrous failure: The audience hissed and jeered throughout the performance, and several on-stage accidents occurred. The second performance, however, met with quite a different fate, becoming a roaring success.

Tickets cost $25, $50, $75 and $100, for sale at all Blockbuster video rental stores.

Call Atlapa's box office: 526-7000.

A complete success in Central America

The opera first performed in 1816.

The production of Rossini's The Barber of Seville has been a complete success in most Central American capitals since its opening in Guatemala City in late January. The last performance of the tour will be at Panama City's Atlapa Convention Center on March 15.

The show's organizers are sure that the Panamanian public will be just as receptive. "Opera was popular in Panama until the 1940's, but people became unacustomed to it in later decades. Things, however, have started to change for the good in recent years," said professor Luis Fernando Morales, a concert pianist and one of the organizers of the event.

From left to right, Prof. Luis Fernando Morales and Frank Castagnet, organizers of the event.

This production of The Barber of Seville is the brainchild of Productora Artística Rivadavia, headed by Panamanian businessman Frank Castagnet, who hired Argentinian-born Constantino Juri as scenic director, managing a troupe of Italian, Argentinian and Central American singers and actors.

The show in Panama will feature a special orchestra organized for the ocasion and the Coro Polifónico de Panama chorus.