“Figaro! He’s here. Hey, Figaro! He’s here. Figaro here, Figaro there, Figaro up, Figaro down.” Figaro, the “city factotum” protagonist of Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” is everywhere. From May 31st he will also be traveling on a lorry for OperaCamionthe traveling project of the Rome Opera House that transforms a truck into a mobile theater around squares, courtyards and urban spaces of the capital and the metropolitan area. For Francesco GiambroneSuperintendent of the Rome Opera Theatre, OperaCamion is “one of the most original and inclusive experiences of our programming”.
From 31 May to 17 June 2026 the public will be able to attend a new tour of Gioachino Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia for free with the involvement of choirs from the Capitoline area. The work is proposed in an agile version designed for urban spaces, but capable of preserving the musical and theatrical richness of the original score intact. The tour starts on Sunday 31 May at the Quarticciolo in via dei Larici 4, a place symbolically linked to the productive life of the theatre. In fact, in the fifth municipality of the capital there are the spaces of the Warehouses of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, an ideal starting point for the itinerant journey of the stage truck through the city. From here an urban route of nine other theatrical events including, for this edition, also Bracciano, Tuesday 9 June in Piazza Mazzini, and Valmontone, which will close the project with the last evening on Wednesday 17 June in Largo Brodolini. On June 3rd the show will be staged in the courtyard of the Corpus Domini Parish, in the suburban neighborhood of Massimina.
The Orchestra of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma conducted by Alessandro Poleggi will perform on the truck-stage. The direction is entrusted to Manu Lalli, who also designs the costumes and lights. On stage is a company of young performers, some of whom come from the “Fabbrica” Young Artist Program of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, confirming the theatre’s attention towards the training and valorisation of new generations of artists. The cast is made up of Irene Zas Martinez, Pierpaolo Martella, Diego Savini, Dayu Xu and Francesco Tuppo. With the special participation of the choirs of the Roma Capitale area, coordinated by Andrea Rossi and Don Elio Lops.
The musical adaptation is curated by Tommaso Chieco and Marco Giustini, with scenes by Daniele Leone and choreography of mime movements by Chiara Casalbuoni.
Director Manu Lalli presents her version of Rossini’s masterpiece inspired by the circus, commedia dell’arte and street theatre, perfectly in tune with the itinerant nature of OperaCamion. The mobile stage thus comes alive once again with illusionists, acrobats, tamers and clowns, in a lively and popular atmosphere which, already in the last edition, involved thousands of spectators of every generation. In 2025, OperaCamion recorded an overall participation of over 10,000 attendees for Il barbiere di Siviglia and another 10,000 for Tosca. According to data collected through accessible questionnaires and surveys distributed during the performances, approximately 40% of spectators declared that they were attending an opera for the first time. The participation of young and very young people was also particularly significant, confirming OperaCamion’s vocation as a local cultural project, capable of taking live music out of traditional entertainment venues and creating new audiences.
All shows start at 9.15pm, with free admission while seats last.
