The Almaviva convex mirror frame is made of wood that has been re-finished and gilded in gold. It has been covered with lapis-lazuli spheres and teardrops. Faceted smoky quartz spheres and tigereye are stacked to create an opening flower effect.
This mirror is about 7.5 inches in diameter. It is being shipped to our Atlanta showroom, Ainsworth-Noah. If you are interested contact Dennis Hunt at 404-231-8787.
Count Almaviva, character in two plays, Le Barbier de Séville (1775; The Barber of Seville) and Le Mariage de Figaro (1784; The Marriage of Figaro), byPierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais. Almaviva is introduced in The Barber of Seville as a young count in love with the heroine, Rosine. With the help of the barber Figaro, he cleverly outwits Rosine’s guardian and wins Rosine’s hand in marriage. In The Marriage of Figaro Almaviva is a philandering husband who tries to seduce Figaro’s fiancée Suzanne. He is ultimately reunited with his wife after she and Suzanne conspire to trick him into betraying himself to her.
Both plays by Beaumarchais were considered scandalous in pre-revolutionary France. They dared to put the servants on the same level as the aristocrats. The aristocrats did not come out well, they were arrogant, exploitive and amoral. Oddly Almaviva’s character shifts from a lovable romantic figure in Barber and an dissolute cad in Marriage. Two sides of the same coin?
The Barber of Seville was made into a fizzy comic opera by Gioachino Rossini in 1816. The Marriage of Figaro was made into a masterpiece opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1786.
Postcards from 1905 depicting scenes from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro.
A scene from San Francisco Opera’s 2013 production of The Barber of Seville created by Emilio Sagi.
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