The Barber of Seville BUTCHERED in LA Production

Digital image. Dreadcentral.com. Web. 2 Feb. 2010. .

Opera goers all seek the same thing—an amazing musical experience coupled with some good acting and stage sets. The Los Angeles produced The Barber of Seville was such a horrible disappointment that words cannot possibly do it justice.

The Barber of Seville, or Il Barbiere di Siviglia, by Gioachino Rossini is a comedy about a lovesick Count, Almaviva, who invests in the help of a vivacious and egotistical barber named Figaro, to win over the object of his affection, Rosina. Unfortunately, Rosina is the ward of a greedy doctor, Bartolo, who is determined to marry her in order to inherit her large dowry. After many funny exchanges and schemes, Count Almaviva finally succeeds in marrying his love and the opera ends on a hopeful note.

The entire 2009 Los Angeles production performed at The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion began in the worst way possible. For whatever reason, the director decided it would be nice to have the set noisily moved into place as the overture began. So instead of being able to enjoy beautiful music, the audience was forced to have its pleasure constantly interrupted by stomping feet and moving scenery. Speaking of scenery: the plot is set in Seville, Spain—a lively, colorful town—with a rich culture. The scenery was a dull grey and white for the first half of the performance. And then, as if to make up for the lack of color earlier, the set looked as if a rainbow, high on psychedelic drugs, vomited all over it.

If that wasn’t enough, a key character was underdone as well. In the original, Figaro, the famous barber of Seville, is the very first main character that is introduced. Well-fed, to say the least, and as jolly as Saint Nick, Figaro struts onto the stage and begins singing about his importance and inflated ego. Figaro is very playful as he switches from falsetto to regular to back again, imitating various customers. His opening aria consists of very many quickly iterated syllables, all of which, like the rest of the piece, must be sung over a full orchestra without the aid of microphones. (This performance is a great example of how Figaro should be performed: YouTube - "Largo al Factotum" from Barber of Seville)The baritone at the 2009 version, failed miserably in encompassing Figaro’s unique persona and in singing the aria. Half the time the singer was drowned out by the orchestra, was not clear in his pronunciation of the words, and was never, not even once, interesting to watch. He walked around like a tired old man. Figaro is supposed to be jovial and light on his feet; but this man played him like a middle-aged couch potato!

The other characters were average and uninteresting…except for one. The soprano that played the part of Rosina was surprisingly talented in both her acting and singing. Her performance was believable as she impersonated a young and in love woman. Additionally, her strong voice was heard over the orchestra every time she sang.

Unfortunately for the show, one talented cast member could not make up for the utter failure of the other opera singers coupled with of the horrible scenery and direction. Over the years I have steadily lost my appreciation of anything produced in LA—it seems to get worse and worse every time I attend a musical production. I now restrain myself only to shows performed by touring foreigners, mainly from Europe. If you, the readers, are by any chance part of the opera scene and either direct these shows or are friends with someone who does, I challenge you to redeem yourselves.