Rossini's Revenge
The first of three new 'Barber of Seville'
productions
marking the opera's bicentenary,
reviewed by GIUSEPPE PENNISI
marking the opera's bicentenary,
reviewed by GIUSEPPE PENNISI
Il Barbiere di Siviglia by Gioacchino Rossini is one of
the four major musical comedies of the period between the end of the
seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth century. It shares
this privilege with Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Verdi's Falstaff. A common
feature of the four operas is that they are perfect and do not need any
innovative stage direction: it is
sufficient to follow the libretto, the score and the authors' staging instructions.
Il Barbiere was premiered in Rome on 20 February 1816 at the
Teatro Argentina. For the bicentenary, Teatro dell'Opera di Roma prepared
major celebrations: three different productions — one in
the main House, one in the Summer Season at the Caracalla Baths open
air theatre and one — co-shared with Palermo — in a simplified version and on a van travelling to
major squares in both Rome and Palermo.
 Simone Del Savio as Bartolo and Florian Sempey as Figaro in Rossini's 'The Barber of Seville' at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Photo © 2016 Yasuko Kageyama. Click on the image for higher resolution |
The first of these productions opened on 11 February 2016. The house was
full; I was in the audience. But the staging received a
real battery of boos when the production team (Davide Livermore for stage direction, sets and lighting, Gianluca Falaschi for costumes, D-Work for videos and
Alexander for special effects) appeared at the end of the performance. There had
been some boos already at the end of the first part.
 A moment from Act II of Rossini's 'The Barber of Seville' at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Photo © 2016 Yasuko Kageyama. Click on the image for higher resolution |
In the opera house program, Davide Livermore explained
that at first he was 'terrified' by the invitation to stage Il Barbiere,
but then he developed the idea to present a
synthesis of Barbiere readings over the last two hundred years. Thus, on
a stage crowded by mimes, the action goes from the guillotine —
Almaviva is beheaded, but then he puts his head back on his body and the play
goes on — to World War I airplanes
fighting in the skies of Europe, to 1970s television. This is
made worse by grotesque costumes (especially in the first part).
 The entire cast of Rossini's 'The Barber of Seville' at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Photo © 2016 Yasuko Kageyama. Click on the image for higher resolution |
The boos were Rossini's revenge. Davide Livermore
should be only partly sorry; the same fate occurred to very well known
stage directors such as Luigi Squarzina and Luca Ronconi when they played too
hard with Il Barbiere.
 Edgardo Rocha as Count Almaviva (centre) in Rossini's 'The Barber of Seville' at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Photo © 2016 Yasuko Kageyama. Click on the image for higher resolution |
Fortunately, the musical part rescued the performance; the conductor, the orchestra and the singers received open stage applause and warm accolades at the
end, also for their ability to play and sing in spite of the staging. The
orchestra was conducted by Donato Renzetti, an old
hand from the Rossini Opera Festival. Among the
singers, the three young protagonists Chiara
Amarù (Rosina), Florian Sempey (Figaro) and
Edgardo Rocha (Almaviva) were excellent. The first two were a major surprise at the 2014 Rossini Opera Festival ('Avant-garde
and Fun', 7 September 2014) and no doubt they are the
best of the new Italian Rossini crop.
 Florian Sempey as Figaro, Sax Nicosia as Ambrogio and Simone Del Savio as Bartolo in Rossini's 'The Barber of Seville' at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Photo © 2016 Yasuko Kageyama. Click on the image for higher resolution |
Edgardo Rocha is a young Uruguayan tenor with quite a bit of experience in belcanto.
He sang the impervious aria Cessa di
più resistere which only a few tenors dare to attempt.
 A scene from Rossini's 'The Barber of Seville' at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Photo © 2016 Yasuko Kageyama. Click on the image for higher resolution |
Next to them are the very experienced Simone Del Savio as Don Bartolo and
Ildebrando D'Arcangelo as Don Basilio, and a
lovely Berta, sung by Eleonora De La Peña.
Let us wait for the other two productions.
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