Reviewed by James Karas
Rossini’s The Barber of Seville is one of the most popular operas in the repertoire which means one has many opportunities to see it. That is enjoyable of course but it may also develop ways of seeing the work and choices by different directors that may raise more eyebrows than cheers of approval.
The Paris National Opera wound up its 2024-2025 season at the Opera Bastille with a production of The Barber conducted by Diego Matheuz and directed by Damiano Michieletto. Matheuz took a deliberate pace where he could, but those patter arias forced breakneck rapidity and he came through.
The singers were popular with the audience. Led by a robust, full-throated baritone Mattia Olivieri as Figaro, tenor Levy Sekgapane as Count Almaviva, mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina as Rosina and bass-baritone Carlo Lepore as Doctor Bartolo they did creditable work in the vocal department.
The issue I have is with Michieletto’s view of the opera and his overall presentation of it. He creates a whole world or at least community for the life of the characters involved in the courtship of Rosina by Count Almaviva. In fact, he goes out of his way to make us see The Barber of Seville in his conception.
It is a modern-dress production and the first thing we see is an ordinary car parked in front of a tenement building. It turns out to be Count Almaviva’s car (I think) and we would have expected him to drive something sporty and hence more expensive, but we let it go by.
But we do pay attention to the building where we know Rosina lives as the ward of the elderly and obnoxious Dr. Bertolo who controls her life and, what is worse, wants to marry the delectable young lady.
They live on three floors of a less than classy building in a less-than-opulent neighborhood created by designer Paolo Fentin. Michieletto and Fentin want us to have a full and frequent view of Bartolo’s residence. The central part of the set revolves so we get a full view of every side of the tenement. The plain street front turns and we get to the side of the building with winding staircases to the third floor. We will see characters going up and down those stairs with alarming frequency with questionable necessity to do so.
Another turn and we see a cross section of the apartment with Rosina’s tiny bedroom on the main floor, several rooms above that where the music lesson will take place in one and much more elsewhere that I cannot recall.
On the third floor there may be a kitchen, and I think I saw a servant washing dishes there but with so much activity going on it was difficult to keep up with who was doing what, where.
There is BARRACUDA SNACK …& BAR on the left which was in business, and we saw people eating there. There are apartments to the left and right of the Bartolo residence and they are occupied, of course, and now and then they become part of the main action of Rossini’s work.
That is not all. This is a whole community and Michieletto wants us to see it in full life and action with people running up and down stairs, making noise and showing a vibrant neighborhood. The costumes are a motley of the working class type and Rosina wears a short black dress and leotards that could have been bought at Walmart if Paris has such a store.
The neighborhood gets more vibrant when Don Basilio (Luca Pisaroni) sings the famous aria “La calumnia.” There is no need for him to do much except deliver it with sonority and conviction. In this production he uses the stairs and goes all over the place. But that is not enough. There are people on the street holding anti-Almaviva signs nicely printed. The aria is heard in the first act, and we do not know that Lindoro is in fact the count and why and how do the neighbors know what Don Basilio is singing about?
It is impossible to ruin The Barber of Seville if you have decent singers, a good chorus and a good orchestra. This production had all of that in spades. Diego Matheuz conducted the orchestra and chorus of the Paris National Opera with exemplary playing and singing even if I thought he took some parts a bit on the slow side.
I have no complaints about the singers. They were kept so busy doing other things that sometimes I doubted they had time to concentrate on their vocal duties.
In fairness I
should mention that I saw the 55th performance of this production
which received a positive reception from the audience. Chacun a son gout, as
the French would say.
________________________________
The Barber of
Seville by Gioachino Rossini continues until
July 13, 2025, at the Opera Bastille, Paris, France. http://www.operadeparis.fr/
James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press
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