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Nico Darmanin (Count Almaviva) and Nicholas Lester (Figaro).Pictures: Richard Hubert Smith The Barber of Seville
Welsh National Opera
Birmingham Hippodrome
**** AS
someone who is new to opera I would have to say that I seldom get bogged
down or distracted by the minutia of the score or make comparisons to
some other performance and productions as a way of valuing or
undermining a work. In that sense
I am free to enjoy the work on nothing but that which is presented to me
and enjoy this I did. The Barber of
Seville is a comedy about Sam Brown’s
production builds on this atmosphere and on into great pantomime and
slapstick. It is in many ways an opera that fits into the Morcambe and
Wise Christmas show format. It’s good wholesome entertainment and one of
the few operas that I have genuinely laughed at. The
translation by Kelly Rourke help enormously to contemporise a fair
amount of the text whist fitting beautifully with many of the heavily
punctuated parts such as Rosina’s first aria. Location has little to do with the overall stage presentation with designer Ralph Koltia opting for modern translucent Perspex panels which cleverly allow us to see both the interior and exterior of a room. Nicholas Lester as Figaro with an early form of Twitter These huge
panels pivot, changing the aspect to either view and then provide for
sweeping architectural movement in some of the other scenes. In the role
of Rosina, Claire Booth was perhaps a sweeter choice in voice than most
would like but added a lacey girlish charm to the part. Nico Darmanin
as Count Almaviva has great precision in his clean tenor and
energetically played up to the characters of his various, devious
disguises. Although the
central character, Nicholas Lester as Figaro had a marginally lesser
workload, he held many of the vital scenes together as the slightly
affected coiffeur. Adding to the comedy was his physical height over
Nico Darmanin and several of the scenes made much of this. Andrew Shaw’s
delivery of Doctor Bartello had great comic timing although his
character and lust for Rosina was presented in a slightly too
exaggerated, seedy and overbearing manner at times. Adding the
`dog on stick ‘puppet to Richard Wiegolds portrayal of Don Basilio
generated much laughter something that was appreciated by many of the
younger members of the audience. James
Southall conducted and seemed to leave much of the comic timing to the
performers at times before reaching major passages and the adding a
burst of energy when needed. The purists
might not like this production overall but the audience on this night
certainly did .The characters are more like caricatures, Seville is more
of notion than a setting but the comedy is on point and executed very
well. For that
reason it’s a cut above the rest Performed again on Saturday, 5 March Roger
Clarke 01-03-16
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lovers sneaking through windows, disguises, imposters, lust and deceit
all set in a society of the rich and glamorous.