I love this opera! It is really engaging, fun and has some great arias. I particularly like the arias for the bass roles of Dr. Bartolo and Don Basilio. The role of Dr. Bartolo was sung in this performance by Maurizio Muraro and the bass role of Don Basilio by the ever-dependable and enjoyable Samuel Ramey. Both singers did a fine job in my opinion. I was happy to see Diana Damrau perform as Rossina. She was out sick the week before for La Fille du Regiment and apparently still had a cold for this performance. I noticed no ill effects. Ms. Damrau rendered a shimmering performance of the arias in the role including Rosina's famous aira Una voce poco fa.
Here is Don Basilio's aria La calunnia e un venticello sung by Nicolai Ghiaurov and Dr. Bartolo's aria A un dottor della mia sorte sung by Claudio Desderi.
Once again, I have mixed feelings about tenor, Lawrence Brownlee who I had seen last week subbing for JDF in La Fille. In The Barber of Seville, Brownlee was an engaging actor in the comedic role of Count Almaviva. He was thoroughly enjoyable to watch. And, Brownlee does have a fine voice and good technical skills. The problem is that his voice does not project well. Sitting up high in the Family Circle, I had to strain to hear him. The production did lessen this problem. There was a smaller orchestra so singers had to struggle less to be heard. And, the production had a walk-way on the audience side of the orchestra pit which the characters occupied for some of their singing. This aided Mr. Brownlee. Sadly, given the sound quality of his singing and his acting skills, his voice does not radiate to the far reaches of the Met auditorium.
The role of Figaro was sung by Franco Vassallo who admittedly I had not heard of previously. I thought that he performed well in the role. The conductor was Maurizio Benini.
This production of The Barber of Seville was by Bartlett Sher. Sher proves that a minimalist set can support the opera if it is organically related to the music and libretto. Much of the set was made up of doors - opening, closing, stationary and moving. There were doors on the balcony, doors to the outside, doors in between rooms and doors on the traveling barbershop of Figaro. This was right on target since in many ways this opera is about doors - locked doors, open doors, doors with keys, doors which keep people in or keep people out and doors through which people connive to pass. Rossina needs to pass out of the doors of Dr. Bartolo's house and the metaphorical doors of his clutches. Almaviva needs to pass through the doors of Rossina's heart. To do so, he has to first pass unnoticed through the doors of Dr. Bartolo's house and then leave through these doors with Rossina. Figaro is the expert on the topic of passing through doors, hence his status as a great facilitator of romances.
Image from Intermezzo.typepad.com
Everything about the set provided a sense of mobility and produced energy and exhilaration. All of the set was in motion, including a potted tree that had a noticeable role in the action. The actors were free to move on the extended stage beyond the confines of the traditional stage out into the audience passing beyond a metaphorical door perhaps made up of our assumptions about actions on stage. This is a scene from the Sher production.
One could wax philosophical and ask about the doors in our own lives and how we pass through and beyond them. Which are physical doors? Which are metaphorical doors? Which are existential doors? What are doors we create for ourselves and what are doors that we allow others to create for us? What are our strategies in passing through them? I am assuming that these questions were beyond the purview of what Rossini was covering in his opera. Maybe this is why the opera, itself is so freeing.
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