4 ½ stars
The Joan Sutherland Theatre had a full house last night for the 2025 opening night of Opera Australia’s “The Barber of Seville” by Rossini. With a big cruise ship birthed at the Circular Quay Passenger Terminal, the dress code was unusually casual with a large contingent of Italian speakers in the crowd.
The late Director Elijah Moshinsky premiered this production with Opera Australia back in 1995, yet, it is timeless and could easily continue to be used for another 30 years as it is so much fun! Scenery, makeup and costumes are based on the silent movies of the 1920’s. The interior rooms look like movie sets and it is surprising how many performers you can squeeze into the small spaces.
The “prodigal son” conductor Daniel Smith returns to Australia to lead orchestra and cast. He has been based in Italy for the past 25 years and only returned a handful of times. With a chirpy personality, he is an ideal match for this opera. The overture felt a tad rushed such that much of the delightful detail was lost. However, the tempi for the rest of the evening settled down and worked well.
The Opera Artists
In the leading role of the barber “Figaro” was baritone Samuel Dale Johnson making a strong first impression in his debut principal role for the company. Johnson makes full use of his slim, long limbed stature in a way you might expect of the genius comic John Cleese. Johnson’s comic timing and quick moves almost felt like the sped up camera work of the silent movies. His visual clowning was superb and the character he created proved very popular with the audience. Vocally, the articulation ran a little short and the most famous aria from the opera “Largo al factotum” needed more attention to detail. However, he was beautifully suited to the role and can enjoy developing the character as the season progresses.
The lead female role of Rosina was played by Italian mezzo-soprano Serena Malfi. Her technique and power stood out with a rich tone and great sense of humour. She succeeded in showing the innocence of a young teenager adding an up to date interpretation that was very relatable. Seen by many as the strongest singer in the cast, she remained humble at curtain call.
With a passion for Baroque music, Malfi was perfectly matched to this role. When we think of Rossini, we see his operas very clearly in the 1800s, yet, The Barber of Seville was premiered in 1816 which barely scrapes into the new century. We’re talking literally 25 years after the early death of Mozart so, there are features within this opera that have carried over from the Baroque period. Most obvious would be that the orchestral music and arias are interspersed with recitative. In the 1700’s this would have been performed on harpsichord but, more appropriate for Rossini, the recitative was expertly performed on forte piano by Siro Battaglin.
Secondly, Baroque opera often features a castrati in the lead male role – someone like Farinelli, for example. Whilst Rossini didn’t use a castrati, the leading tenor role of Count Almaviva is very light indeed. This role was delivered in a perfectly charming manner by OA local John Longmuir. He has played this role many times which has given him time to fully develop the character. His voice was light, strong and accurate. He played the role in a way that was instantly likeable and easy to recognise no matter what disguise he wore.
Andrew Moran played Dr Bartolo keeping up with an extraordinary amount of action and seems to be constantly duped throughout the story.
These four principal artists had such great chemistry and played off each other very well. The love match between Rosina and the Count felt unusually innocent but perhaps that was directed to match the expectations of the 1920s movie theme, a bit like 14 year olds getting excited about holding hands.
Jane Ede’s Berta swapped from being a governess to nurse who did more medical practice than the doctor himself (give that woman a pay raise!) and David Parkin played the music teacher Don Basilio as a classic movie baddie. A number of actors joined the principals on stage with much to do. The direction added a lot of clowning and visual comedy throughout the scenes including its own Keystone Cops moment. At times, it was a stretch to follow the English sur-titles way above the stage as well as catch all the visual gags. Clearly, much thought has gone into the presentation making it a must see at least 2 or 3 times to catch everything that is going on.
Summing up
Thus, this production has officially become a classic in the repertoire and will hopefully continue to be produced. There is never a dull moment and always something new to spot even if you’ve seen it before.
Over all, the production is a lot of fun with lovable characters. It’s brilliant for newcomers to opera as an introduction. If you plan to bring anyone who is slow to read, they might like to study the storyline before visiting the theatre so they can focus more on the stage rather than the sur-titles.
The season runs until 28 February and is highly recommended.
Buy tickets on Opera Australia’s website: https://opera.org.au/productions/the-barber-of-seville-sydney/
What else on at the Opera House? https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/whats-on
The aria “Largo al Factotum” from The Barber of Seville performed by Australian baritone José Carbo.
