United Kingdom Rossini, The Barber of Seville: Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House / Rafael Payare (conductor). Broadcast (directed for the display screen by Peter Jones) from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, to Cineworld Basildon, Essex, 15.2.2023. (JPr)
Production:
Directors – Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier
Set designer – Christian Fenouillat
Costume designer – Agostino Cavalca
Lighting designer – Christophe Forey
Chorus director – William Spaulding
Fortepiano continuo – Mark Packwood
Cast:
Rosina – Aigul Akhmetshina
Figaro – Andrzej Filończyk
Count Almaviva – Lawrence Brownlee
Don Basilio – Bryn Terfel
Doctor Bartolo – Fabio Capitanucci (performing), Grant Doyle (singing)
Berta – Ailish Tynan
Fiorello – Josef Jeongmeen Ahn
Ambrogio – Charbel Mattar
Officer – Dawid Kimberg
Notary – Andrew Macnair
The Barber of Seville was composed terribly rapidly – taking solely three weeks and has a recycled overture – and was premiered in 1816 inflicting nice controversy, but it has change into probably the most beloved operas of all time. Why was it controversial? Well, firstly it was removed from unique, as Beaumarchais’s 1772 play had already attracted one other composer, Giovanni Paisiello, whose 1782 opera was an enormous hit. When Paisiello’s admirers came upon about Rossini’s new work they triggered a commotion on the first efficiency which didn’t go nicely and issues seemed pretty bleak for Rossini.
In the tip, nevertheless, his model quickly surpassed the rival one in common enchantment all through Europe and past. In 1825 it was the primary opera to be sung in Italian in New York, and Rossini was arguably the most well-liked composer on this planet on the time. As it occurs, The Barber of Seville can now really feel like fairly a contemporary concept as a result of, from movies and TV, audiences are extra acquainted with the concept of ‘prequels’ than folks within the early nineteenth century would have been. Beaumarchais adopted up his unique play with The Marriage of Figaro in 1778 and this ‘begat’ Mozart’s fantastic opera eight years later – and thirty years earlier than Barber was composed – that includes the persevering with story of Rossini’s characters.
The opera buffa plot was slightly formulaic even in Rossini’s personal time as a result of Beaumarchais’s characters have their roots within the commedia dell’arte custom which dates again to sixteenth-century Italy and was nonetheless common in a lot of Europe 200 years later. Figaro, Count Almaviva (in one among his three disguises as a soldier) and Doctor Bartolo mirror the ‘stock’ characters of the crafty servant, the braggart soldier and the duped, doddery outdated man. The fundamental story is the terribly acquainted one in opera of a pair of younger lovers being united after overcoming quite a few – seemingly insurmountable – obstacles.
Since most of Barber takes place inside Bartolo’s home Rosina is confined in – and the story of the opera is solely to free her from that confinement – administrators Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier stage a lot of the motion inside Christian Fenouillat’s easy box-like set whose partitions and flooring are coated in brightly colored stipes. These colors – now much more garish – lengthen to Agostino Cavalca’s costumes, notably Figaro’s pink and white barber’s pole-like prime worn underneath blue dungarees, and the yellow ruffled shirt and pink go well with Count Almaviva – when not in disguise as a soldier or Don Antonio – wears. Rosina can also be in pink and yellow while Bartolo has a shiny brown waistcoat and inexperienced trousers. There is an total cartoon-like look to every thing which is augmented by the false noses for the bewigged band of musicians within the first scene and Leiser and Caurier’s Keystone Cops.
For Act I, Scene 1 the field is open on the again and all we see is a gnarled olive tree, a crescent moon and Rosina’s balcony with its jail bars. This permits for the arrival of Almaviva’s servant, Fiorello, on the again along with his small orchestra. Elsewhere, the rear wall will elevate to disclose the policemen later in Act I and once more close to the tip of the opera because the pleased ending approaches when they are going to be accompanied by heart-shaped balloons (acceptable for the day after Valentine’s Day). For Scene 2, Rosina is imprisoned inside a field with just one chair, later there are doorways, home windows and different furnishings – comparable to a harpsichord and tall dresser – when wanted by the plot. During the second act’s stormy interlude every thing on the stage will get a battering from Rosina when she thinks she has been betrayed by Lindoro (Almaviva in his first disguise) who she actually loves. For all the entire confusion Rossini has created on the finish of the primary act there’s a veritable coup de théâtre from Leiser and Caurier as your entire field begins shifting about mimicking the characters’ bewilderment. (I initially thought Peter Jones was shaking his cameras like they do in Star Trek!)
I need to admit right here that because of native technical difficulties a lot of Scene 2 was lacking for these watching in Basildon from after Rosina’s cavatina, ‘Una voce poco fa’ till the final minutes of ensemble craziness, but Act II was a triumph which must be acknowledged. We did lose Don Basilio’s ‘La calunnia è un venticello’), a Figaro and Rosina’s duet, and Bartolo’s aria ‘A un dottor della mia sorte’. It was a disgrace that this was the scene affected and never the primary one which may principally be minimize other than Lindoro/Almaviva’s ‘Ecco, ridente in cielo’ and, in fact, Figaro’s well-known entrance aria.
All was nicely then for what turned out to be an excellent second act when a lot of the bodily comedy was pure slapstick. It was odd to listen to from the administrators Leiser and Caurier – who oversaw this fifth revival – that ‘One of the most important things for us when we approach a comedy is to tell the singers “Don’t play comedy, play the state of affairs, don’t play humorous.’ Well, for me, after the boring opening scene this Barber succeeded as a result of a way of character went out the window – had there been any within the set! – and the solid merely performed it for laughs.
Musically and vocally, I’m conscious that what I write is about an incomplete efficiency however I’m sure I noticed and heard sufficient to remark. It should be remarked that we have been instructed that this was Lawrence Brownlee’s twenty third manufacturing of Barber since his debut as Almaviva in 2002. We have been proven him working with conductor Rafael Payare nevertheless it was extra a case – within the nicest attainable means – of the grasp (Brownlee) teaching the pupil (Payare). Not that Brownlee was totally at his ease performing or singing on this event, and notably whereas his tenor voice was suitably sweet-toned and elegantly phrased there appeared some tightness on the prime of his voice. Aigul Akhmetshina‘s Rosina was suitably flirty, flighty and her match of jealousy when she wrecked the furnishings in Act II was spectacular. Her mezzo-soprano had the darker (contralto-like) sound many favor within the function whereas I like a lighter voice with extra sparkle.
Andrzej Filończyk was a charismatic Figaro and oozed character, he notably had nice enjoyable making his first look by way of the stalls for a showstopping ‘Largo al factotum’. With greater than a touch of Don Pasquale about him, Fabio Capitanucci introduced a high quality sense of comedian timing to the ageing, lecherous Bartolo’s growing desperation to marry the a lot youthful lady. Grant Doyle was singing for him offstage and revealed a high quality baritone voice with wonderful diction. The precision of the miming – Covent Garden have gotten specialists at this now it appears – was outstanding. Ailish Tynan’s harried, sneezy Berta overcame a false nostril and exaggerated costume to make her Act II aria (‘Il vecchiotto cerca moglie’) one other showstopper on this night. Even a lot of the smallest roles have been equally nicely solid, although I wasn’t fairly as proud of Bryn Terfel’s cameo as Don Basilio. I would favor to recollect him for the nice Wagner roles he was at all times destined to sing from the beginning of his profession and will not – bodily or vocally – be capable to sing now. Terfel’s voice has a lot of the resonance and focus we bear in mind, although character-wise there was an excessive amount of gurning for my liking.
Rafael Payare is music director of San Diego Symphony and Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and was a slightly diffident determine on the rostrum however his account of Rossini’s rating from his completed orchestra – as heard by way of loudspeakers – was radiant, brisk and a show of musical joie de vivre.
Jim Pritchard