Largo al factotum

Musical aria from Rossini's "The Barber of Seville"

"Largo al factotum" (Make way for the factotum) is an aria (cavatina) from The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini, sung at the first entrance of the title character, Figaro. The repeated "Figaro"s before the final patter section are an icon in popular culture of operatic singing. The term "factotum" refers to a general servant and comes from Latin where it literally means "do everything".

Because of the constant singing of eighth notes in meter at an allegro vivace tempo, the piece is often noted as one of the most difficult baritone arias to perform. This, along with the tongue twisting nature of some of the lines, insisting on Italian superlatives (always ending in " issimo"), have made it a pièce de résistance in which a skilled baritone has the chance to highlight all of his qualities. The aria is written in C major. The voice range covers D3 to G4 (optional A4), with a very high tessitura. For this reason, a few dramatic tenors have also sung the aria, notably Mario Del Monaco and Plácido Domingo.

Beyond its frequent operatic and orchestral performances, the aria has appeared in cartoons and live action films. The first example of the song appearing in an animated cartoon is Notes to You, released in 1941, where a cat annoys Porky Pig out of his slumber. The most popular examples in animation are The Barber of Seville (a 1944 film with Woody Woodpecker acting as a mischievous barber), the final segment from the 1946 Disney film Make Mine Music, "The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met", Long Haired Hare (1949), Magical Maestro (1952), One Froggy Evening (1955), and The Cat Above and the Mouse Below (1964). In the opening animated sequence by Chuck Jones of Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Robin Williams plays a canary singing the song. Examples in film are For the Love of Mary (1948, by actress/soprano Deanna Durbin), Hopscotch (1980), Oscar (1991), and Luca (2021).