What's that song? (Figaro something...)

[Phantom Warrior]

This is driving me nuts.  There is a song they play a lot in cartoons.  I think they play it at the beginning of "Mrs. Doubtfire", before Robin Williams gets fired from that job.  They also play it during a tv commercial showing clips from "Yes, Dear", "Everybody Loves Raymond", and a bunch of other shows.  WB, I think?

The guy starts off slow going "Fiiiiiigaro.  Fiiiiiigaro."  There is something like "A te fortuna" in there too.  Then later he's going "La la la la la la la" faster and faster and faster.  And "De la che ta" at the very end.

I can't find the title of it and I don't know enough of the lyrics to search for it.  Can someone help me out, PLEEEEEEASE?

[garrettwc]

The title is Figaro. It is from the opera Barber of Seville IIRC.

[Stickjockey]

IIRC, it's from The Marriage of Figaro, the sequel to Barber of Seville, by W.A. Mozart.

I could be wrong, though.

[JAlexander]

I just asked my wife, the opera singer, and she says it's the Barber of Seville.  Me, I prefer Bugs Bunny in Wabbit of Seville.

James

[Ben]

James beat me to it -- the Bugs Bunny version is THE classic version of The Barber of Seville.

[Typhoon]

I much prefer the Bugs Bunny/Elmer Fudd version of Wagner's Ring Cycle...

Kill the wabbit, KILL THE WABBIT, KILL! THE! WABBIT!!!

Opera doesn't get any better than that...

[Stickjockey]

All right then; Barber of Seville it is. Data banks updated.

Wi-if my speaw and magic HEW-me-eetttt!:D

[K Frame]

You know the definition of an intellectual?

Someone who can listen to Mozart and not think about Bugs Bunny...

[Azrael256]

No, that's the definition of a soulless fathead.

[Ben]

Ya know, thinking about it, all my early exposure to classical music was the result of Bugs Bunny and Tom and Jerry (the Tex Avery years) cartoons. They gave me my first dose of pretty much everything from Beethoven to Vivaldi.

[Typhoon]

Duh...

Yeah!  What Azrael said!

(Actually, I think some of the Animaniacs' parodies of Broadway musicals and movies were quite inspired at times, too...)

[K Frame]

"No, that's the definition of a soulless fathead."

Uh oh, sounds like someone just found out that the William Tell Overture wasn't written specifically to be the Lone Ranger's theme...

[Guest]

The aria you're thinking of is "Largo al factotum" featured in the opera "The Barber of Seville" by Gioacchino Rossini.  It was written after Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro" but the story in "The Barber of Seville" takes place before the events in "The Marriage of Figaro".  If one is interested in getting into opera, either of these two is a fine place to start.  The plotlines of these operas are a bit silly (sometimes very much so), but Mozart's music is sublime in "Figaro", and the vocal acrobatics in "Barber" are incredible (if sung well).

And yes, I am a heterosexual male who likes to shoot guns.

--Richard V.

[Norton]

Richard,

You beat me to it.....very cool aria and one of the more difficult pieces in the vocal repertoire.  I did a transcription of if on my senior recital in college and it's tough to do even without words!