March 5, 8, 11 & 13, 2022
Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center, Atlanta, GA
Arthur Fagen, conductor; Michael Shell, stage director. Cast: Stephanie Lauricella (Rosina), Taylor Stayton (Count Almaviva), Joseph Lattanzi (Figaro), Giovanni Romeo (Doctor Bartolo), David Crawford (Don Basilio), Cadie J. Bryan (Berta), Sankara Harouna (Fiorello). Shoko Kambara, scenic designer; Amanda Seymour, costume designer.
Gioachino ROSSINI: The Barber of Seville
Mark Gresham | 7 MAR 2022
The Atlanta Opera opened its production of Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville on Saturday at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. Unlike their previous presentation in 2014, this version involves a non-traditional set, costuming and staging, but the plot remains simple and straightforward: boy meets girl, love at first sight. The girl’s guardian is the obstacle. After a series of ruses, the boy’s clever friend gets them together for a happy ending.
Arthur Fagen and The Atlanta Opera Orchestra set the mood for anticipation of comedy to come with their astute presentation of opera’s Overture. Rossini borrowed from two of his earlier operas, and it contains no music from the rest of the opera. Still, it suits The Barber of Seville so well that it is now primarily associated with it in the public mind.
First to arrive onstage with a flourish is the titular “barber” character, Figaro, portrayed by baritone Joseph Lattanzi in his role debut. With his entrance during the Overture, he immediately breaks the fourth wall in presenting himself to the audience, then gestures for a host of supernumeraries to join him onstage visually set up the action. It is clear that they are all aware they are players on a stage.
The scenic design by Shoko Kambara and the costumes by Amanda Seymour were the first big clue that this was not to be a typical Barber of Seville. There is a blatant abstractionism in Kambara’s sets for Act I, not so much Act II. Where the opera gets extremely abstract is the “thunderstorm” orchestral interlude in Act II, which we will get to later.
Lattanzi’s portrayal of Figaro is a clever but confident trickster with a good heart, introduced in the cavatina “Largo al factotum della città.” (“Make way for the Mr. Fixit of the city.”)
He aids his former employer, Count Almaviva (tenor Taylor Stayton), who is in love with a girl he has seen, Rosina (mezzo-soprano Stephanie Lauricella). Almaviva has arrived in Seville, disguised as Lindoro, a poor student, who tries to woo Rosina with a song, “Ecco, ridente in cielo” (“Here, laughing in the sky”) sung beneath her window before dawn. He is accompanied by street musicians herded around by his servant, Fiorello (baritone Sankara Harouna). Almaviva also takes on two additional comic disguises, as a soldier an apprentice music teacher in the pursuit of Rosina, as guided by Figaro.
Although Rosina is an ingénue role, she proves Figaro’s equal in cleverness, deception, and good-heartedness. Rosina’s aria “Una voce poco fa” (“A voice just now”), a staple of operatic repertoire, was a showpiece for Lauricella.
Doctor Bartolo (low baritone Giovanni Romeo) is portrayed as an old ophthalmologist who collects chicken paraphernalia (the latter of which becomes curiously significant in Act II of this production, as well shall see) and is suspicious of Rosina’s interest in other men. Romeo’s first act aria, “A un dottor della mia sorte” (“For a doctor of my class”), is a challenging gem to execute well.
With the help of his music-teaching henchman Basilio (bass David Crawford), Bartolo plots to marry Rosina, his ward, as much for her considerable dowery as anything else. Crawford’s Basilio suggests a use of slanderous rumor in “La calunnia è un venticello” (“Calumny is a little breeze”) to undermine Almaviva. Curiously, the makeup artists have given Basilio a mustache which, with the hairstyle, gives him an appearance halfway between a young Johann Strauss Jr. and a Salvador Dalí in his early 30s.
A chorus of 20 male singers portrayed the gathered police, who appear when the plot gets tense, with chorus member Mitch Grindlesperger in the bit small role as the flustered police officer in charge.
Soprano Cadie J. Bryan is Berta, Bartolo’s cigarette smoking maid, whose high point came in Act II, in the empathetic aria “Il vecchiotto cerca moglie” (“The old man is looking for a wife”). It sometimes gets left out of productions, but the character risks becoming a mere comic accessory without it. Thankfully, it was retained.
One comic accessory is Bartolo’s elderly head servant, Ambrogio (David Silverstein), who is tired and bored, wears dark glasses, and shuffles along in rapid tiny steps, solidly in the background character who at times upstages the rest of the cast with seemingly little effort. As such, this minor character won the hearts of many in the audience.
Joseph Lattanzi as Figaro, makes his entrance on a bicycle. (credit: Raftermen)
Glynn Studio Artist Sankara Harouna as Fiorello. (credit Raftermen)
Taylor Stayton as Count Almaviva (disguised as a soldier), with Giovanni Romeo as Dr. Bartolo and Cadie J. Bryan as Berta. (credit: Raftermen)
Stephanie Lauricella as Rosina. (credit: Raftermen)
Taylor Stayton as Count Almaviva (disguised as a music teacher), with Stephanie Lauricella s Rosina and David Crawford as Don Basilio in the background. (credit: Raftermen)But there are plenty of such accessory characters on hand, specific to this production, some explainable, some not.
At the beginning of Act I, an old vagrant wearing a Santa Claus hat is a baffling presence (and the player not identified in the program), except that he reads a newspaper, which is then left on a bench, which Almaviva (as Linindoro) pretends to read, using it to hide his face.
Even more unexplained is the recurring presence of a stilt walker (KB Kristen Bailey) with a parasol who, like The Bear in the parody cartoon series Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, seems to have no reason all to be present but is impossible to ignore when seen.
Typically, Act I’s “chaos” ensemble finale is the most unusual scene in the entire opera. In this production, that honor went to the “thunderstorm” orchestral interlude in the otherwise comparatively straightforward Act II.
The Interlude in Act II usually functions just as representing a passage of time, with the thunderstorm as the device. In this case, however, Dr. Bartolo has fallen asleep on his living room couch during the storm. The Interlude then becomes a surrealistic scene where Bartolo dreams he is beleaguered by his beloved chickens. (This is where the bit about collecting chicken paraphernalia comes most into play.) Here the lighting and undulating projection contribute to the hallucinatory feeling.
Outside of that bizarre but entertaining diversion, stage director Michael Shell opted for pushing the comedy more toward farce. That by itself is a good move. However, there are too many instances where meaningless physical gestures by cast detract from that goal instead of aiding toward it. One which treads the fine line is Basilio’s quirky Travolta-imitating disco dance move (the upward and downward movement of the hand, with the index finger pointing out) that occurs several times late in the second act.
One effective choice is that when Almaviva appears disguised as a substitute music teacher, he is costumed as a late 1960s hippie, a kind of cross between George Harrison and John Lennon, with the glasses, bell-bottomed pants, meditation rug, and a sitar. (Note to the cast: a sitar is not held in the same manner as a Fender Stratocaster guitar when playing.)
In the end, everyone, even the antagonists, ultimately participates in a happy ending. Nobody dies. Even Bartolo is content with getting to keep Rosina’s dowery even though she marries Almaviva (most likely all he really wanted in the first place).
Suspend your disbelief for three hours and forgive some of the slapstick and self-consciously campy elements that occasionally don’t work so well. In that case, you will find this unusual production of “The Barber of Seville” remains an entertaining experience with great music and a well-balanced cast of fine singers. ■
Three performances remain of The Atlanta Opera’s production of The Barber of Seville: Tuesday, April 8 at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, March 11 at 8 p.m.; and a matinee performance on Sunday, March 13 at 3 p.m., all at Cobb Energy Centre.
Mark Gresham is publisher and principal writer of EarRelevant. he began writing as a music journalist over 30 years ago, but has been a composer of music much longer than that. He was the winner of an ASCAP/Deems Taylor Award for music journalism in 2003.
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