Description
The first of its kind, this is a genuinely playable piano/vocal reduction of "Largo al factotum,” the show-stopping first aria from Gioachino Rossini’s famous opera Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville). Most reductions of this aria pose a physical hazard to audition and other collaborative pianists who risk injury by trying to grab every fast repeated note and chord in this extremely long aria, nor do the repeated notes tend to come out properly or sound right on pianos compared to the string instruments for which they were written. With this reduction—which was specifically created to be more ergonomic at the piano and safer to get through on long audition-playing days—pianists may now enjoy playing this aria comfortably, without risking strain/injury. However, it’ll still be a tour de force for the baritone!
Note that this score does not make any cuts to the aria; therefore, it is also suitable for recital settings without time limits.
All Accessible Accompaniments, including this one, boast several unique features:
1. No reduction ever requires stretches of over an octave, not including bass notes meant to be held or “fudged” with the pedal (though octaves may also contain chord tones within them). This reduces the amount of rearranging that smaller-handed pianists must already do. Obviously, further reworkings are to be expected and pianists should feel free to add to or modify what I’ve provided.
2. I’ve included less essential, but potentially desirable additional voices/passages in cue-size noteheads so that pianists can easily see them, but know that they are not necessary in a “sink or swim” accompanying situation. Presenting less essential material in cue-size noteheads also reduces visual clutter on the page.
3. In addition to the composer’s markings, when needed, I have included hints on particular notes to bring out when the singer is likely to need them as a pitch anchor or when it is not obvious which line should be brought out within the texture.
4. All page turns have been carefully selected so as to result in the least possible disruption to the pianist when possible. When an inevitable page turn precedes a potentially surprising note or chord, I’ve included the next downbeat’s notes in cue-size stemless noteheads at the end of the preceding measure.
5. When known, I’ve noted alternate cuts that singers might like to take within certain arias.
6. In some cases I’ve modernized spelling conventions for easier readability (for example, by replacing “ß” with “ss” in German arias) and occasionally I've enharmonically respelled brief passages for greater clarity. I’ve also replaced some text “cresc.” and “dim.” markings with hairpins, which are easier to see in high-pressure sight-reading situations.