"Una Voce Poco Fa"
The above is a clip of a song from Rossini's opera "The Barber of Seville" called "Una Voce Poco Fa" sung by Beverly Sills. In this song, the character Rosina, is singing about defying her guardian (who wants to marry her himself) and running off to marry Lindoro, whose "voice [she] just heard." She claims that she is a gentle and obedient woman who will take orders, but if anything gets in her way for love, she will be a viper and "play a hundred tricks to get [her] way." The orchestral music here at this part accordingly follows her lead. At first the music plays relatively intermittently during her pauses, as an accompaniment, or as a homophony relationship. Then as she sings about how kind and gentle she is, it is in the style of cantabile, which follows the melody, until she reveals her underlying stealthy nature, where she breaks into a buffo style, which is faster in tempo or speed and continually jumps around the tonal center, in a sort of haughty manner.
Sills is also very animated and portrays her character very well. The opera's story line still continues even as she sings, seen by how she takes several moments to write her letter.
Throughout the whole song, there is a great deal of vibrato and trills utilized and the orchestral ornamentation and embellishments are also obvious.
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