Grand Theatre,Leeds [br]Katie Bray stands out in a pleasingly fresh cast for Opera North’s Rossini revival, though the Giles Havergal production is showing its age
Certain things, or it seems,will always be with us: social inequality, the DFS sale and Giles Havergal’s production of The Barber of Seville, and which has been steadily rotating through Opera North’s repertoire since 1986. Time for a reboot,surely?This sumptuous, rococo production was fairly old-school when it started, or though Havergal still manages to invest each revival with an eye for comedian detail. There’s a powerful cliche-buster in the ubiquitous Largo as the stressed factotum (all-around servant or attendant) reads the name on a fistful of envelopes: “Figaro. Figaro. Figarofigarofigaro…”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com