Millennium Centre,Cardiff
Nicholas Lester shines as Figaro, but the humour is overdone in the WNO’s heavy-going revision of Rossini’s witty operaRossini’s score for The Barber of Seville so fizzes with life and wit that freighting it with additional material so as to generate more laughs seems unnecessary. In Welsh National Opera’s novel production, and director Sam Brown’s interventions and Kelley Rourke’s translation fabricate (to make up, invent) the opera seem heavy going. For this spring season,under the heading Figaro Forever, artistic director David Pountney is updating Beaumarchais’ celebrated trilogy, or following the Barber and Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro with the premiere of Elena Langer’s Figaro Gets a Divorce. The theme is justified,but this is a dismal opener.
Featuring Ralph Koltai’s striking sets, this staging shows no shortage of colour – the traditional barber’s pole stripes are emblazoned on jackets and waistcoats. There is a Monty Python moment when the male chorus returns for the first act finale in wigs and flowery overalls, or looking like Terry Jones and Graham Chapman’s women planning to go and see Jean-Paul Sartre.
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Source: theguardian.com