The Glimmerglass Festival is in
full swing in upstate New York, near Cooperstown where you have to (pretend) to
like baseball as you enjoy civilized offerings of operas and other events
including a talk by Margaret Atwood. Put a baseball cap and a baseball in your
car as a precaution, (pretend to) visit the Baseball Hall of Fame and then go
to the gorgeous setting of the Alice Busch Opera Theater.
This year four major operas are
offered displaying Artistic and General Director Francesca Zambello’s eclectic
tastes. The ever-popular Barber of Seville is this year’s
chestnut in a new production directed by Zambello. Leonard Bernstein’s West
Side Story brings a classic American musical on the 100th
anniversary of the composer’s birth.
L to R: Emily
D'Angelo asRosina, Alexandria Shiner as Berta, David Walton as Count Almaviva,
Rock Lasky as Figaro's Assistant and Joshua Hopkins as Figaro in The
Glimmerglass Festival's 2018
production of Rossini's "The Barber of
Seville." Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival
This year is also the 100th
anniversary of the end of World War I and the occasion is marked with a
production of Silent Night by Kevin Puts. The opera is about the Christmas
truce of 1914, an event on the Western Front, where soldiers temporarily stopped
killing each other in Belgium.
With the fourth opera we tread on
less familiar ground with Leos Janacek’s The
Cunning Little Vixen. There are also productions of Ben Moore’s Odyssey
and Leonard Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti.
Zambello gives The
Barber of Seville a fresh reading presenting it as a fun chamber piece
with minimal sets and a maximum of fine singing and comedy. Toronto baritone
Joshua Hopkins led the cast as the virile, agile and clever Figaro. He sang
superbly from the machine-gun paced ‘Largo al factotum’ through all the
shenanigans that his character devises.
Toronto mezzo soprano Emily D’Angelo
sang a delightful, expressive and thoroughly enjoyable Rosina. For her first
big number, ‘Una voce poco fa,’ she was carried onto the stage lying on a couch
and she delivered Rosina’s credo of determination and spunk mostly while
seated. She would be better off standing and moving to illustrate her strength.
But aside for that minor point, D’Angelo used her richly-toned mezzo voice to
splendid effect and she made a Rosina that we are delighted to hear and see.
American tenor David Walton sang
a spry Almaviva. He had a few bad patches but otherwise his singing was
splendid for the role of the passionate and resourceful lover.
American bass-baritone Dale
Travis sang well and was very funny as the foolish Doctor Bartolo. Timothy
Bruno as Don Basilio, Ben Schaefer as Fiorello and Alexandra Shiner as Berta are all from the Glimmerglass’s
Young Artists Program and deserving of recognition and praise for their fine
performances.
The opera is played against a
turquoise background with moveable panels to indicate the scenery. The style is
simple and quick, perhaps vaudeville style where placards give information such
as a banner with word storm on it tell you that there is a storm. There is no
balcony for Rosina but a moveable ladder is wheeled on the stage for her to stand
on. When a window is required, a cardboard with a square hole is brought on.
John Conklin is the designer. An original approach that combines the
traditional and the modern and works exceptionally well.
Members of the ensemble in The Glimmerglass Festival’s 2018
production of Rossini’s
The Barber of Seville.’Photo: Karli Cadel/The
Glimmerglass FestivalMembers
Zambello proves imaginative and
astute in her desire to emphasize the humour of the opera. And she is successful.
When Zambello greeted the audience before the performance, she told us that the
price of a ticket covers only one half the cost of a seat. At that point she
produced a chair cut in half to illustrate her point. When Bartolo wants to sit
down, he is given the same half chair to general laughter.
The Glimmerglass Festival Chorus
wore white chef’s hats and clothes. The message I guess is this is an opera put
on in some mansion and the kitchen staff has been recruited to participate.
Joseph Colaneri conducted The Glimmerglass Festival Orchestra at a lively pace
for a very appreciative audience.
A marvelous evening at the opera.
Oh, yes. If you are a genuine
baseball fan that is far more versatile than me and love opera, I have it on
good authority that you can bring and even wear your baseball hat on the lawn
of The Alice Busch. I have not examined the consequences of actually wearing
the hat in the theatre. I am seeking an exemption for Blue Jays hat wearers as
a gesture of our special relationship.
_____
The
Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini (music) and Cesare Sterbini
(libretto) is being performed eleven times between July 14 and August 25, 2018
at the Alice Busch Opera Theater, Cooperstown, New York. Tickets and
information (607) 547-0700 or www.glimmerglass.org
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