L.A. Opera's Handsome New 'Barber' is a Cut Above Competition
/By Truman C. Wang
10/23/2023
Photo credit: Cory Weaver / LA Opera
Isabel Leonard as Rosina and Joshua Hopkins as Figaro in LA Opera's 2023 production of "The Barber of Seville”.
For its second mainstage production, Barbiere di Sivgilia, L.A. Opera did not bring back its 2015 modernist staging by Emilio Sagi (as part of the Figaro Trilogy); instead, it revived Broadway veteran Rob Ashford’s staging, originally conceived for Chicago in 2014. Its handsome, traditional décor (by Scott Pask) and colorful period costume (by Catherine Zuber) are sure to please everyone. The colonnade wall unit set of Bartolo’s house cleverly reconfigures to reveal the living room interior and Rosina’s music room, effectively replacing the three sets in Rossini’s original staging directions with one all-purpose set. Ashford’s direction remains faithful to the story, at times paying homage to the great opera director Pier Luigi Pizzi in the music lesson scene (when Bartolo sneaks out of the barber’s chair, with Figaro holding his funny wig), and adding new, very funny ideas of his own (orchestra tuning up before Fiorello’s band playing, Almaviva’s toreador dance during his serenade, Bartolo’s hilarious asides and expressions, etc.) The uncut, note-perfect score of Barbiere used in this production – which I assume is the new critical edition from Pesaro – breezed through the three hours without an ounce of tedium or boredom. In fact, I think I will go back to see it again, when a new Bartolo performs on November 9 and 12.
The opera is named after Figaro, the barber and all-around fixer. However, like Don Giovanni, we learn of his exploits mainly from what other characters say or sing about him. His only chance to shine musically is the entrance aria “Largo al factotum” and Joshua Hopkins, the Figaro, delivered it with great panache on October 21 opening night. Edgardo Rocha, from Uruguay, was Count Almaviva, the perpetual skirt chaser who will return in the sequel, The Marriage of Figaro, to seduce another bride-to-be. Mr. Rocha’s clear, sunny timber and athletic bravura singing (in the final double-aria “Cessa di piu resistere”) recalled for me the great Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez. As Bartolo, an old doctor plotting to marry his young ward (a popular theme in seventeenth-century French comedy), veteran buffo bass Paolo Bordogna impressed and delighted with his impeccable comedic timing and patter skills.
In the two small, but vital, roles, Kathleen O’Mara was a pert and sparkly Berta (the housekeeper and governess), and Luca Pisaroni, a sly music teacher Basilio who delivered his calumny aria with booming authority.
Perhaps no one character embodied the grace, charm and supple inflections of this superb cast quite as well as the Rosina of Isabel Leonard. A vocal chameleon, Ms. Leonard sang soprano in last month’s Don Giovanni, and mezzo-soprano in this Barbiere. Her Rosina began the entrance aria “Una voce poco fa” affectingly. The timber was dark, rich, and lustrous, the phrasing delicate. But soon, just as the cunning little minx shows that she is not so simple, so did the vocal line take flight, swinging with spitfire speed between dizzying highs and deep lows to show she means business. Ms. Leonard’s Rosina was spunky, mischievous, and utterly alive.
Italian-Iranian conductor Louis Lohraseb, a star alum of the L.A. Opera’s Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program, started the comedy with a leisurely, not bubbly, overture, but soon tightened up the pace and, from Rosina’s entrance onward, never let up the tension and brisk excitement. Lovely wind and horn playing by the orchestra throughout the evening.
Five more performances of Barbiere on October 29, November 2, 4, 9, 12. Patrick Carfizzi will sing Bartolo in the final two shows.
Truman C. Wang is Editor-in-Chief of Classical Voice, whose articles have appeared in the Pasadena Star-News, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, other Southern California publications, as well as the Hawaiian Chinese Daily. He studied Integrative Biology and Music at U.C. Berkeley.