10/8 Il Barbiere di Siviglia @ Met Opera
This year I decided to do something adventurous. So, I bought a subscription to the Metropolitan Opera. For less than $200 I received 7 tickets in the nosebleed seats for a variety of different shows. I really hadn’t had much exposure to opera before, but had listened to quite a bit over the summer and was inspired to go see live productions. Last year I went to the Met to see a rather lifeless production of “Don Giovanni” that turned me off to opera for the rest of the year. But, feeling that a reevaluation was in order, I found myself waiting on October 8th for the curtain to go up on Bartlett Sher’s production of Rossini’s classic Il Barbiere di Siviglia.
After the rousing overture played by the Met Orchestra under Maurizio Benini ended, the scene opened as Ambrogio, a servant, tried, without much success, to pull his sleeping master Dr. Bartolo offstage. And so began a series of jokes that involved the ne’er-do-well Ambrogio felled by a tree, almost crushed under an anvil, and the victim of exploding vegetables. The opera kept a light and ridiculous tone while also showing the interesting interplay of the early 19th century relationship between servants and masters. The significance of the eventual triumph of Figaro, the barber who serves all, and yet gets what he wants in the end, was not lost on the original audience, and still rings true today.
The cast of the opera was superb. Joyce DiDonato stole the show as Rosina, the young girl trapped by her guardian, finding love with Count Almaviva. She sounded beautiful, nailing all of her arias (not an easy feat in this opera.) She was also vibrant and charming in her acting, expressive even from the nosebleeds. Rodion Pogossov as Figaro was devilishly charming, accompanied by 5 women in low cut dresses that silently assisted him in schemes. He was perhaps a grander barber than Rossini envisioned-complete with house on wheels and live donkey-but a cunning schemer nonetheless. Count Almaviva and Dr. Bartolo were both quite funny in their misadventures trying to woo Rosina, especially when Almaviva dressed up and impersonated a drunken army doctor. The entire production flowed and sparkled. Despite sitting there for 3 hours, I was never bored or impatient for the story to move along. The orchestra and Benini listened with a deft ear, and the group arias, one of the strengths of the opera, were wonderful.
To anyone looking to go to their first opera, I highly recommend this engaging production of a classic for both its humor, talent, and beauty. As someone with another 6 operas to see this season, I’m happy to say that I left the Met with a light heart and no buyer’s remorse.
(Next up will be Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffman, a more serious work in a new production Dec 3.)
Leave a comment