Why Do So Many Operas Choose Seville As A Background?

Sevilla is a beautiful city and it gave many famous writers and composers inspiration for their operas and plays. Sevilla is a great location, with great myths and the city is very romantic... With its beautiful houses and squares, romantic balconies and impressive monuments, like the Maestranza bullring and the old Tabaco Factory, it is easy to imagine the equally comic and tragic action of operas taking place around its streets.

Inspired by Sevilla's streets

Some of the (famous) people who were inspired by Sevilla, were Rossini, Mozart, Beethoven and Bizet. Gioachino Antonio Rossini was an Italian composer who wrote 39 operas, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, baptised as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the classical era, Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Classical music and Georges Bizet, registered at birth as Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer of the romantic era.

As you can see, all of these four composers, have one thing in common: the romantic, classical opera scenes.

You may know Rossini, he is the playwriter for the opera The Barber of Sevilla.

Mozart, Beethoven & Bizet in Sevilla

Another playwriter who visited Sevilla, was Mozart. Mozart composed two different operas: Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro. Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It is based on the legends of Don Juan, a fictional libertine and seducer. The Marriage of Figaro is an opera buffa in four acts composed in 1786, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte.

Also Beethoven has chosen Sevilla as a "background" for his opera Fidelio. The libretto, with some spoken dialogue, tells how Leonore, disguised as a prison guard named "Fidelio", rescues her husband Florestan from death in a political prison.
One of the most popular opera's here in Sevilla is Carmen, which was composed by Bizet. Carmen is a story known worldwide about love, passion and jealousy. At this website, you can see where Carmen used to go in the streets of Sevilla back in the days! 

During our bike tour we also go through the Jewish quarter where Carmen used to dance. You can book our highlight bike tour here.