‘Barber of Seville’ proves unusually funny
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The Opera Company of Middlebury, with the Burlington Chamber Orchestra, presents Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville,” fully staged with orchestra, June 5, 9 and 11, at 8 p.m., and June 7 at 2 p.m. at Town Hall Theater in Middlebury. Tickets are $40-$35; call (802) 382-9222, or go online to www.townhalltheater.org. (A pre-performance talk will be given one hour before each performance at the Memorial Baptist Church directly across the street from the theater.) For more information, go online to www.ocmvermont.org. Submitted photo |
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By Jim Lowe Staff Writer - Published: June 8, 2009
MIDDLEBURY — Anyone who thinks that opera cannot be ridiculously and hilariously funny, while being beautiful as well, needs to see the Opera Company of Middlebury’s production of “The Barber of Seville,” which opened Friday at Town Hall Theater.
Rossini’s comic can be a silly affair, but many productions try to minimize the silliness. Not so, the OCM production, which simply reveled in it Friday. At the same time, it benefited from more substantial portrayals than usual, offering new light on this old “war horse.”
On top of that, the OMC production was particularly well cast and performed with some stellar characterizations. And it looked really funny.
OCM is now in its sixth year of producing professional opera and each year the production values improve. Last year’s “La Boheme” suffered from an unsuccessful orchestral accompaniment, but this year’s was successfully, even outstandingly, accompanied by a fine, albeit, reduced Burlington Chamber Orchestra.
Premiered in 1816, Rossini amazingly wrote “The Barber of Seville” in three weeks, but it was booed and hissed at its opening. That was short-lived and it soon became a hit, and now the bel canto gem is number five in Opera America magazine’s top 20 operas performed.
Cesare Sterbini based libretto on a Beaumarchais play, one of trilogy. (Mozart based his “The Marriage of Figaro” on the following play in the trilogy several decades earlier.) The plot centers on the young Rosina who falls in love with the young and dashing Count Almaviva, whom she thinks is the poor student Lindoro.
Unfortunately she is the ward of the elderly Dr. Bartolo, who hopes to marry her himself. It takes the wily barber Figaro and a lot of hi-jinks to make it all work.
Middlebury’s production, directed by Douglas Anderson, the company’s artistic director, is unusual in that although it is virtually cartoon- style, its characters have real dimension.
Mezzo-soprano Meredith Zeigler’s Rosina, rather than the usual innocent, is a lusty young woman who knows exactly what she wants. Zeigler sang with a clean line and a light voice, managing Rossini’s florid lines beautifully. Tenor Jonathan Blalock was quite funny as Almaviva and despite a few difficult moments sang lyrically and effectively.
Baritone Nathan Wentworth’s Figaro was wonderfully comic and richly sung. Stephanos Tsirakoglou, who sang particularly skillfully with his attractive baritone, unusually played Dr. Bartolo, not as a buffoon, but as a realistic character, and the result was even funnier. Peter Campbell played Bartolo’s friend Don Basilio a real comic feel and sang with a delicious bass.
Mark Shapiro, the music director, matched Anderson’s comic approach perfectly, with spirit, flexibility and sensitivity in his conducting and continuo playing on the electronic excuse for a harpsichord (though it was better than some out there). The Burlington Chamber Orchestra, reduced to a string quintet, winds and percussion, despite its unbalanced sound, performed their Herculean task effectively and well.
Brilliantly colored cartoon-like costumes, a simple but novel set and fine dramatic lighting all contributed to the comic feel. Middlebury’s “Barber of Seville” proved to be a theatrically rewarding experience.