Sunday 18 March 2012

OPERA REVIEW - ROSSINI’S THE BARBER OF SEVILLE, ENGLISH TOURING OPERA



Grant Doyle, Nicholas Sharratt and Kitty Whately
THIS spring English Touring Opera has made a welcome return to popular works with Rossini’s glorious crowd-pleaser The Barber Of Seville.

Even better, it is set in the original time and place: Seville in the 18th century; so you can sit back and enjoy, without having to analyse some obscure directorial concept.

Rossini was only 24 when the opera was premiered in 1816, but the inventive composer was already in full flower. Nothing else he wrote quite topped this energetic comedy, based on the Beaumarchais play that was a prequel to The Marriage Of Figaro. The young heiress Rosina is rescued from a forced marriage to her guardian and, with the help of the resourceful Figaro, marries Count Almaviva, the man she loves.

Director Tom Guthrie’s production opens to Rhys Jarman’s set of four house fronts designed to swivel into an interior.

A backcloth silhouette of Seville changes colour depending on the time of day. Almaviva arrives with a ragbag band of musicians to serenade Rosina, incarcerated in her guardian Dr Bartolo’s house.

The comedy thereafter is fast and furious. Andrew Slater’s Bartolo is a monstrous sawbones of a doctor who terrifies his patients. He is matched by Alan Fairs’s creepy Don Basilio. In the chaos caused by the arrival of the police to arrest the disguised Almaviva, Seville’s skyline tilts as if we are on a stormy sea, a topsy-turvy moment.

Kitty Whately, winner of the 2011 Kathleen Ferrier Award, is a sparkling Rosina, with a bright mezzo voice. Nicholas Sharratt’s Almaviva sails through the coloratura and the high Cs, even having a commendable stab at the often omitted aria “Cessa di piu resistere”, though he needs to correct his forward-leaning stance.

Grant Doyle keeps up the pace as the ubiquitous Figaro, as does the orchestra under Paul McGrath. The English translation dispenses with the usual surtitles. As all the cast have clear diction, this gives immediacy to the sung words.

ROSSINI'S THE BARBER OF SEVILLE

4/5


English Touring Opera
 (This week: Exeter Northcott: 01392 493493; then touring: englishtouringopera.org.uk)

Link to original review here