United Kingdom Rossini, The Barber of Seville: Soloists of Ulster Touring Opera / Gary Matthewman (musical director / piano), Gillian McCutcheon (clarinet). The MAC Theatre Belfast, 15.2.2023. (RB)
Production:
Director – Dafydd Hall Williams
Set designer – Ross McDade
Costume designer – Arlene Riley
Lighting designer – Paul Hinchcliffe
Cast:
Rosina – Sarah Richmond
Figaro – Thomas Chenhall
Dr Bartolo – Wyn Pencarreg
Count Almaviva – Jack Roberts
Basilio – Malachy Frame
Berta – Lorena Paz Nieto
Fiorello – Henry Grant Kerswell
Ulster Touring Opera launched their flagship live performance in Spring 2022 and this manufacturing of Rossini’s Barber of Seville was their first full manufacturing. The MAC Theatre in Belfast was offered out, which fits to point out that there’s a vital urge for food for opera among the many common public.
Rossini composed The Barber of Seville in simply three weeks, and it obtained its premiere in 1816. The libretto was primarily based on Beaumarchais’s play of the identical title, which was written in 1775. The first efficiency didn’t go effectively as there was a commotion created by admirers of a rival composer, Giovanni Paisiello, who had already used the identical materials. However, issues recovered shortly after that, and it has since develop into probably the most steadily carried out and best-loved operas of all time. Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, which was primarily based on a follow-up play by Beaumarchais, was written thirty years earlier so Rossini’s opera is successfully a prequel to that work.
Ulster Touring Opera are clearly a fledgling firm and didn’t have entry to a full orchestra for this manufacturing. I had preliminary misgivings in regards to the reality the Rossini’s orchestral forces have been diminished to piano and clarinet. Having mentioned that, Gary Matthewman and Gillian McCutcheon each did a terrific job in respiratory life into Rossini’s rating. Both performers delivered to it color and rhythmic vitality they usually have been extremely attuned to Rossini’s witty and sensible writing. Matthewman performed continuous in the course of the manufacturing – apart from one level when he stood as much as conduct the singers – and he maintained an exceptionally excessive customary all through.
Dafydd Williams’s manufacturing transferred the motion from eighteenth-century Seville to nineteenth-century England. The set was a fundamental picket construction which supplied the define for the inside of Dr Bartolo’s home the place many of the motion takes place. However, diversifications and extra props have been added to create a number of the exterior scenes and at numerous factors the door of the home was taken right down to kind a desk. Arlene Riley’s nineteenth-century costumes have been vibrant and ingenious and efficiently reworked the solid right into a gallery of Dickensian misfits. The opera opened to Dr Bartolo performing a surgery whereas a number of spectators appeared on from a public gallery. There have been numerous references to the insufficient medical procedures of the nineteenth century and the quack science of phrenology, however I used to be not satisfied that they supplied many further insights into the opera itself.
The proficient younger solid did a sterling job in bringing Rossini’s comedian capers to life. They labored as a effectively drilled ensemble and the comedian timing was wonderful. Sarah Richmond introduced an infectious exuberance and sense of enjoyable to the position of Rosina, and he or she performed off the opposite solid members effectively. She sang Rosina’s first act aria fantastically, though I might have welcomed larger vocal energy and authority within the opening part. Thomas Chenhall was a larger-than-life, wily Figaro and he carried out effectively within the ensemble numbers. He negotiated the coloratura effectively in his well-known opening ‘Largo al factotum’ though the timing may have been tighter, and the diction was a bit of unclear. Jack Roberts’s Count Almaviva was too buttoned up and subdued within the opening scenes, though he threw himself into the motion extra because the opera progressed. He sang with heat and lyricism and dealt with Rossini’s intricate coloratura effectively though often the tone was a bit of skinny and I might have favored much less vibrato.
Wyn Pencarreg and Lorena Paz Nieto have been each terrific within the roles of Bartolo and Berta respectively. Pencarreg introduced the lecherous however hopelessly out-manoeuvred Bartolo to life, and he negotiated Rossini’s rapid-fire coloratura with brio. Nieto’s displayed wonderful comedian timing and he or she clearly received over the viewers given the response to her Act II aria. Henry Kerswell and Malachy Frame additionally acquitted themselves effectively within the roles of Fiorello and Basilio. The solid blended effectively for the ensemble numbers they usually introduced a successful exuberance to the finales of the 2 acts.
Overall, this was a extremely gratifying first full manufacturing for Ulster Touring Opera; so, onwards and upwards.
Robert Beattie