O sweet Rossini, please forgive me. After seeing HGO’s revival production of The Barber of Seville from Spanish director Joan Font and his Barcellona-based Comediants, I have sworn off this opera.
This Barber has not improved since HGO presented it in 2011 and then again in 2017. Nine years has not been kind. Font has turned your fizzy confection into a muddled and frantic cartoon.
Your music is busy enough with filigree and coloratura and tongue-twisting patter, must we also be subjected to stage busyness from the extras who are annoyingly distracting as they putter through the background? They do all this extraneous action while the singers are pouring out their larynges during some of your most extravagant, bargework musical passages. The singers become a background score.
Conducted by Gemma New in her HGO debut, Rossini’s natural effervescence becomes flat and uninspired. At times, the sync between pit and stage is slightly off, which is momentarily disconcerting. She can whip the orchestra into an appropriate Rossini crescendo, but the overall pace is slack and uninviting. When has your lively music ever sounded dull?
The singers are good, but only old pro baritone Alessandro Corbelli, as lecherous Dr. Bartolo who lusts for his young ward Rosina, soprano Alissa Goretsky as chambermaid Berta, and baritone Geonho Lee, in the small part of Almaviva’s manservant Fiorello, get into the meat of their roles. They sound robust and at ease.
Baritone Will Liverman, another HGO debut, makes a fine Figaro, cuts a manly figure, and neatly spins through his classic intro aria, “Largo al factotum” with its quick-witted “Figaro, Figaro, Figaro…” We warm to his sly fox immediately.
Mezzo Daniela Mack, in her HGO debut, has an agile voice with much projection. She’s a spirited Rosina, and her blazing “Una voce poco fa” which starts softly with her in love with love, then turns into a devilish independent streak, was wondrous in technique and personality. “I’m docile, respectful, obedient, and loving. But if you cross me, I become a viper! I’ll lay a hundred traps before I give in!” Her voice is sweet and pure, then steely with fire.
Tenor Jack Swanson as Count Almaviva, who woos Rosina through Figaro’s machinations, has his coloratura down pat. As he twists the vocal line upward, his torso instinctively twists too. You can watch him leaping the scales visually. He’s agile, for sure, but his metallic voice isn’t quite as mellow and smooth as a classic lyric tenor’s. I think this will come with age. But HGO has great faith in him, for they’ve given him the final florid Act II aria “Ah, il più lieto” (The happiest) that Rossini cut after the 1816 premiere because it was too difficult for the tenor to sing properly. Swanson soars through this with effortless, masterful control.
Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green, he of the magnetic stage presence and deep-dish voice, pulls back for opportunistic music teacher Don Basilio. His iconic aria, “La calunnia” (Slander) was pitch-perfect in phrasing and pronunciation as he dove down into those patented Rossini depths. Recently he appeared at the Metropolitan Opera as the disillusioned King Marke in Wagner’s love-besotted Tristan and Isolde. He’s moving into the heavier rep and that is a good thing.
Font’s production looks like a picture book, which is a good thing, too. Everything from Joan Guillén’s pastel fantasy costumes and oversize set pieces (Almaviva sings his “Serenade” poised on top of a gigantic guitar) to that background tree is color-coordinated. There are handsome stage pictures as the soldiers march in formation with their Necco wafer-plumed helmets and the extras sprout tiny tufts of purple or yellow hair. It’s just what they’re up to that is so distracting. Opera buffa doesn’t have to be off-putting slapstick.
The Barber of Seville continues through May 8 at 2 p.m. April 26 and May 10; 7:30 p.m. April 28, May 2, 6, and 8 at Houston Grand Opera at Wortham Theater Center, 501 Texas. For more information, call 713-228-6737 or visit houstongrandopera.org. $25-$210.
