Everyone Wants Me!

We have The World's Very Best Opera for Kids...in English! and my kids think this is a pretty funny song (music by Gioachino Rossini/libretto by Cesare Sterbini).

But before you hear the song and read the words, I should point out that in the past "barbers performed surgery, bloodletting and leeching, fire cupping, enemas, and the extraction of teeth; earning them the name 'barber surgeons.'" (wikipedia) The lyrics in English (and a short movie) are beneath this wonderful performance by Dmitri Hvorostovsky.


No better life could a barber wish for,
nothing more noble could ever exist...

Everyone calls me, everyone wants me,
Ladies and young men, old men and maidens:
Where is my wig, sir? Give me a shave, please…
Leeches for bleeding…
Letters for reading…

Everyone calls me, everyone wants me,
Everyone calls me, everyone wants me:
Where is my wig, sir?
Give me a shave, please!
Letters for reading!
Hey! Figaro! Figaro! Figaro!

Oh my, they’re loud!
Oh my, those crowds…
Surround me!
One at a time,
For pity’s sake! For pity’s sake! For pity’s sake!
One at a time, please, One at a time, please, One at a time, please,
For pity’s sake!

Figaro! I’m here.
Hey, Figaro! I’m here.
Figaro here, Figaro there
Figaro up, Figaro down
Faster and faster I fly like a lightning bolt,
I am the barber of Seville.
Of Seville

Ah, bravo Figaro! Bravo, bravissimo, Bravo, bravissimo
All of my luck, All of my luck
All of my luck it will not fade away. La, la, la...