Libretto by
Cesare Sterbini
English
Translation by
Amanda Holden
and
Anthony Holden
Conducted by
Dominic Wheeler
Original director
Jonathan Miller
Revival by
William Relton
Designed by
Tanya McCallin
Figaro
Mark Stone
Dr Bartolo
Andrew Shore
Count Almaviva
Charles Workman
Rosina
Alison Roddy
Don Basilio
Robert Pomakov
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The Barber of Seville
by Gioachino Rossini
English National Opera
London Coliseum
16 Feb - 19 March 2005
This is a genuinely funny production of a genuinely funny opera. All things conspire to make it so, not just the original comic conception of character and situation, and Rossini's exhilarating music, but the happy genius of Andrew Shore as Dr Bartolo, who carries the show along delightfully, and almost steals it completely.
Mark Stone is a fine Figaro, combining an excellent voice with cheerful relish in the role. Alison Roddy's dangerously magnificent décolletage and blonde ringlets - an operatic Barbara Windsor of the classic Carry On period - would by themselves make her a perfect Rosina, but she is even more so because the silvery cascades of her voice fit Rossini's tumbling music like a glove. Charles Workman has height, presence and a resonant voice that well suits an aristocratic role, but it is questionable whether his voice, good as it is, has quite enough fluency for the hectic colourings of Rossini's score.
Having seen this "Barber" several times in recent years I have to count it a favourite, and no doubt that predisposes to positive feelings about any revival; but this seems to me more than worthy of its previous avatars. If anything it is racier and pacier, with the cast's enjoyment spilling over into the audience and infecting them with the sheer fun that permeates the whole. Much of this owes itself to the vivacious conducting of Dominic Wheeler, and the energy - more: the gusto - with which the orchestra responds to him. Rossini's youthful genius grows on one, the more one hears him. He had consummate skills as a musician of comedy. The finale of the first act has to be one of the most exuberant and cheering moments in all operatic art. The English translation by the Holdens serves "Barber" very well; it cannot be an easy text to shift from one language to another over so demanding a score, but they have done it wonderfully.
AC Grayling
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