Composer:
Gioachino Rossini - Libretto: Cesare Sterbini
Conductor:
Andrea Molino - Director: Elijah Moshinsky
Set
Designer: Michael Yeargan - Costume Designer: Dona Granata
Presented by
Opera Australia
Joan
Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House until March 22nd 2016.
Reviewed by
Bill Stephens
In 1995
Elijah Moshinsky had the inspired idea of presenting his production of “The
Barber of Seville” as if it were taking place in a silent Hollywood movie. His
designer, Michael Yeargan, matched his inspiration with an inventive multi-level
set complete with plenty of doors to slam, and outrageously lurid wall-papered rooms
for his characters to inhabit. To ensure
that the characters weren’t swamped by their surroundings, costume designer,
Dona Granata has clothed them in a Kaleidoscope of witty period costumes.
What a
pleasure it is to have the opportunity to experience this production again in
this beautifully cast and meticulously produced 2016 revival.
Maestro, Andrea
Molino, conducting the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, immediately
raised audience anticipation with a crisp, carefully detailed performance of
Rossini’s familiar and justly famous overture, which, if you didn’t already
know, contains not one reference to the glorious music to follow.
Rossini’s endlessly
inventive opera of mistaken identities and thwarted love, comes to delirious
life in this splendid revival in which the audacious concept and design are
matched by the outstanding cast of superb singers ready and willing to take every opportunity to
explore the endless comedic possibilities offered in this madcap world in which
every improbability almost seems logical.
 |
| Anna Dowsley (Rosina) Paolo Bordogna (Figaro) |
With a
reputation of being one of the world’s outstanding buffo interpreters, Paolo Bordogna, has already become an audience
favourite with his cheeky comedic performances in Opera Australia’s earlier
productions of The Turk in Italy and The Marriage of Figaro. However,
as Figaro in this production, he’s irresistible.
Displaying
his expansive baritone to great effect, he tosses off the famous “Largo al
Factotum” with the expected panache, then keeps the audience’s eyes glued on
him whenever he is on stage. His inspired clowning transforms him into a sort
of genial ringmaster amidst the chaotic
events swirling around him.
However in
the buffo department, Bordogna has some
stiff competition. Samuel Dundas and Jane Ede, looking like two Adams Family escapees
as Ambrogio and Berta, create a pair of remarkably off-handed servants who
almost steal the show with their deadpan antics ushering a continuous
procession of hapless patients through Dr Bartolo’s surgery. The busy Dundas also gets to demonstrate his
versatility as Almaviva’s servant, Fiorello, and as the Notary, and is
unrecognisable in all of them.
 |
| Warwick Fyffe (Dr Bartolo) Paolo Bordogna (Figaro) |
Warwick
Fyffe also mines the rich vein of humour inherent in his role as the cantankerous,
Dr Bartolo, excelling in the scene where he suspiciously presides over Rosina’s
singing lesson with the disguised Almaviva.
As the thwarted
young lovers at the centre of the opera, Anna Dowsley and Kenneth Tarver are a delightful
pairing. Tarver, making his first appearances in Australia in this production
as Count Almaviva, is widely recognised as the bel canto tenore–de-grazia of his
generation. That is easy to believe as he impresses, not only with the beauty
of his floating tenor voice, and the ease with which he negotiates the bel
canto passages of his arias. He also demonstrates a wicked sense of humour
which fits perfectly with Anna Dowsley’s wilful Rosina.
 |
| Kenneth Tarver (Count Almaviva) Anna Dowsley (Rosina) |
This
production of “The Barber of Seville” is one to be savoured and judging from
the continuous hearty laughter throughout, and the enthusiastic audience
response during the curtain calls, the audience at this performance were doing
just that.
Photos: Keith Saunders
This review also appears in Australian Arts Review www.artsreview.com.au
