Figaro barbiere di siviglia pavarotti biography

Musical aria from Rossini's "The Barber of Seville"

"Largo al factotum" (Make way for the factotum) is an aria (cavatina) from The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini, sung at the first entrance of the title character, Figaro.

The repeated "Figaro"s before the final patter section are an icon in popular culture of operatic singing. The term "factotum" refers to a general servant and comes from Latin where it literally means "do everything".

Music

Because of the constant singing of eighth notes in ⁶
₈ meter at an allegrovivace tempo, the piece is often noted as one of the most difficult baritone arias to perform.^[1] This, along with the tongue-twisting nature of some of the lines, insisting on Italian superlatives (always ending in "-issimo"), have made it a pièce de résistance in which a skilled baritone has the chance to highlight all of his qualities.^[2]

The aria is written in C major.

The voice range covers D