After its initial disastrous first performance, The Barber of Seville has proved to be one of our most enduring and well-loved operas, being the eighth most performed opera worldwide last year. Therefore the challenge of setting such a well-known opera in an original manner can be a little daunting, but the New Chamber Opera rose to the challenge to produce a performance that lived up to the comic, dramatic and musical legacy of the work.
From Almaviva’s opening aria the tone was set: Nick Pritchard’s voice carried well ensuring that the audience could appreciate the words. The decision to sing in English was, I think, a prudent one in a theatre that does not have the capacity for surtitles. In an opera with as many plot twists and humorous lines as Barber a performance in Italian would have diminished the comic effect somewhat. The chorus was well-received (complete with sousaphone, sunglasses and Red Bull) and my main criticism here would be of Rossini for not giving the chorus a more prominent role as they produced a magnificent sound in their brief appearance!
The performance continued in the high standard that it set itself from the start. It is a shame that all the orchestra were not quite as precise as the woodwind section and there were some balance issues in some of the solo arias (especially when characters were walking around the platform, which was unfortunately quite resonant) but overall the standard was high throughout, especially in the second half. Dominic Bowe’s Largo al factotum was balanced and moreover brilliantly acted; it is a great credit to all the cast that the characters remained believable and movement was not confined to the recitatives, even given the amount of vocal acrobatics involved. From this perspective Esther Brazil’s portrayal of Rosina was superb; well acted, technically secure and never self-indulgent, an impressive feat given the notoriously challenging role. Tom Bennett, in his sycophantic portrayal of Don Basilio, was the perfect basso buffa; articulate, entertaining and producing some very impressive bass notes. Ensembles were exceptionally good; the sextets and septets at the end of each half are worthy of particular merit.
The comic nature of Rossini’s opera was truly captured in this production and reflected in the audience’s unanimously positive reaction. A thoroughly entertaining evening doing full credit to the libretto and score.
