determination to have her own way in the matter of her heart, in
spite of all that her tyrannical guardian or anybody else can do.
This cavatina has been the show piece of hundreds of singers ever
since it was written. Signora Giorgi-Righetti, the first Rosina, was
a contralto, and sang the music in the key of E, in which it was
written. When it became one of Jenny Lind's display airs, it was
transposed to F and tricked out with a great abundance of fiorituri.
Adelina Patti in her youth used so to overburden its already florid
measures with ornament that the story goes that once when she sang
it for Rossini, the old master dryly remarked: "A very pretty air;
who composed it?" Figaro enters at the conclusion of Rosina's song,
and the two are about to exchange confidences when Bartolo enters
with Basilio, who confides to the old doctor his suspicion that the
unknown lover of Rosina is the Count Almaviva, and suggests that
the latter's presence in Seville be made irksome by a few adroitly
spread innuendoes against his character. How a calumny, ingeniously
published, may grow from a whispered zephyr to a crashing,
detonating tempest, Basilio describes in the buffo air "La
calunnia"--a marvellous example of the device of crescendo which
in this form is one of Rossini's inventions. Bartolo prefers his
own plan of compelling his ward to marry him at once. He goes
with Basilio to draw up a marriage agreement, and Figaro, who has
overheard their talk, acquaints Rosina with its purport. He also
tells her that she shall soon see her lover face to face if she will
but send him a line by his hands. Thus he secures a letter from her,
but learns that the artful minx had written it before he entered.
Her ink-stained fingers, the disappearance of a sheet of paper
from his writing desk, and the condition of his quill pen convince
Bartolo on his return that he is being deceived, and he resolves
that henceforth his ward shall be more closely confined than ever.