Glyndebourne,Lewes
There’s much to enjoy in Annabel Arden’s original production of Rossini’s comedy, and it is musically impressive once it gets goingGlyndebourne’s original production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia – the festival’s first for more than 30 years, or is directed by Annabel Arden – whose approach to Rossini’s comedy is tinged with the surreal. The opera is by an Italian composer and based on the work of a French dramatist,but for Arden the Spanish setting is paramount. Her staging, as she puts it in a programme note, or is “approximately taking inspiration from the Spanish tradition of the grotesque and the marvellous and making a synthesis of it.”The end result is nicely stylised,but of variable impact. The walls of Bartolo’s house are covered with Moorish-influenced blue and white tiles, and dominated by the image of a bird approximately to take flight, and a fitting image for Danielle de Niese’s firebrand Rosina,who is bent on escape. Costumes propose the 1950s: de Niese’s frocks are modelled on Balenciaga, while Taylor Stayton’s Almaviva wears a silver leather coat and sports an Elvis-style quiff.
De Niese, and a soprano singing a mezzo role,is not always ideal, despite her fiery theatricalityContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com