SO successful was the Figaro trilogy by French playwright Beaumarchais that it spawned two of the greatest works of comic opera (namely, Mozart’s The Marriage Of Figaro and Rossini’s The Barber Of Seville). In the latter, the great Italian composer and librettist Cesare Sterbini turned to the first play, in which Count Almaviva arrives in Seville in pursuit of the beautiful, young Rosina.
However, as he soon discovers, standing in the way of his romantic intentions is the ludicrously pompous, old Doctor Bartolo. The physician, who is Rosina’s guardian, has decided that he will marry the young woman, whether she likes it or not.
All of which is meat and drink to the dashing Figaro, Seville’s most sought-after barber, and a man who will bring any romantic couple together if enough pesetas are on offer. With Figaro in Almaviva’s employ, the scene is set for a farce full of disguises, tricks and misunderstandings.
This fabulous Scottish Opera rendering of the tale revives Sir Thomas Allen’s production from 2007. It attests to the fact that Rossini’s opus is as hilarious now as it was when it premiered in Rome in 1816.
From the moment baritone Samuel Dale Johnson’s splendid Figaro swaggers onstage to sing his famous, self-aggrandising aria, one senses that this is going to be a sure-footed evening of comic opera. That feeling is further confirmed by designer Simon Higlett’s brilliant, versatile set, in which a beautifully depicted street of Seville tenements opens out to present the capacious interior of Bartolo’s home.
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Johnson’s excellent singing (all vocal assuredness and mischievous levity) and superb characterisation are replicated across the piece. Swiss-Canadian mezzo-soprano Simone McIntosh’s Rosina, for instance, is sung with glorious defiance and passion, not least in her tremendous aria of newfound love.
The aptly named David Stout (for his character, Bartolo, rather than the baritone himself, fits that description) is deliciously outraged as the disagreeable doctor. Meanwhile, English tenor Anthony Gregory plays Almaviva with equal boldness and subtlety both in and out of disguise.
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There is particular comic delight in Irish bass John Molloy’s playing of Bartolo’s confederate, the devious Don Basilio. The singer puts his tall frame to perfect use in representing the would-be slanderer as a kind of camp Dick Dastardly.
All of which is lubricated beautifully by the lively and precise playing of the Scottish Opera orchestra and the excellent support of the fine chorus. It is enhanced, too, by Amanda Holden’s witty and flexible English translation of the libretto.
It takes guts to rhyme Rosina’s description of Bartolo as a “fossilised crustacean” with “incarceration”. Such writing is of a part with the disguised Almaviva’s later winding-up of the physician, who, with faux absent-mindedness, he calls “Dr Bastardo” and “Dr Bungalow”.
It’s all spectacularly good fun, executed with perfect pace and theatrical dexterity. With global events arranged so constantly against any sense of optimism or good humour, this wonderfully comedic revival is a proverbial good deed in an increasingly naughty world.
Touring Scotland until November 25: scottishopera.org.uk
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