Seville, City of Opera
by Fiona Flores Watson
More than 100 operas are set in the city, by composers such as Mozart, Rossini, Verdi, Beethoven and Bizet.
With its beautiful houses and squares, romantic balconies and impressive monuments like the Maestranza bullring and old tobacco factory, it is easy to imagine the equally comic and tragic action of operas taking place around its streets.
These include most famously, Carmen, The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro, but also Don Juan de Mañara and Fidelio.
You can often see operas set in Seville performed at the Maestranza theatre.
Follow the opera routes
A good option to see opera locations around the city is to follow the three Sevilla Ciudad de Opera (Seville, City of Opera) walking routes, using a brochure or app from Seville Tourism Office.
You can choose from the Carmen Myth, the Don Juan Myth and the Figaro Myth (The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro).
The brochures show the walking route, while the app has voice explanations, and music from the operas.
You can listen to detailed explanations about the works, characters and locations featured, whether mentioned specifically or merely implied, as well as excerpts of music, naturally - famous arias. Most interestingly, some social context is also introduced.
In addition, you can follow two general routes which include a number of different locations from these four operas, as well as Donizetti's La Favorita and Maria de Padilla, and La Fuerza del Destino by Verdi.
The only opera by Ludwig Van Beethoven, this was originally titled Leonore, or The Triumph of Marital Love. It was premiered at the Theater an der Wien in 1805, and was not well received… More →
This opera is based on the legend of Don Juan, a fictional libertine and seducer. It was premiered by the Prague Italian Opera at the National Theatre (of Bohemia), now called the Estates Theatre… More →
Following on from The Barber of Seville, this comic opera by Mozart, also set in the city of Seville, picks up the story three years on.
First performed in Rome in 1815, this comic opera set in 17th century Seville is about a barber named Figaro.
The dusky, sensual character of Carmen forms a key part of the mythical, dramatic image of Seville which attracts hundreds of thousands visitors to the city every year.
