The Barber of Seville

Last night, Elissa managed to arrange for us to see The Barber of Seville, through her network of contacts. This was my first Opera at arguably the world's most famous Opera House, so I was really looking forward to it. We dropped into City Extra for a bite to eat and headed up to pick up our tickets, both for that evening and for tonight's trip to Il Trovatore. Sitting down in the Circle we saw the set, an impressive, colourful, almost garish affair (Elissa said it was very Gaudi-esque, and I agree), with a few folk already wandering around it, keeping the gathering audience entertained. The orchestra fired up and the whole show began. By the time the interval arrived, we were already pretty blown away, and I'd remembered how much I enjoyed the last opera I actually paid attention to (I tend to go to open air screenings with a bottle of wine, and ignore everything but the last act). Figaro was played magnificently, and the whole cast were very impressive - not only singing impeccably but looking like they were enjoying it. There's a moment where one of the characters was playing piano for another's music lesson (I won't ruin the plot, but it's several hundred years old, so if you haven't seen it by now...) and he plays the first note on a piano onstage. The orchestra strikes up and the singer/actor looks confused and glances under the piano. Several moments where the Doctor impersonates his daughter's whining tone by adopting her range, falsetto. That sort of thing. It was all so fluid, you barely noticed they were singing in a language that I, certainly, didn't understand a word of.

I sometimes get a bit snobby with things like this being dumbed down. I think it's possible, though, to keep something as serious as it should be, as polished and as slick as it should be, and inject some fun into it. This was one of the times when it added something to the show, rather than taking it away. I had an incredible time. I can't wait to see what they come up with this evening.