Opera Review: In the pink with Opera Theatre's "Barber of Seville"

The last time I saw Rossini’s comic masterpiece “The Barber of Seville” at Opera Theatre of St. Louis in 2015 under the capable direction of Michael Shell, I described it as “always funny and sometimes inspired”.

L-R: Justin Austin, Hongni Wu
Photo: Eric Woolsey

This year’s “Barber,” with Eric Sean Fogel at the helm, doesn’t quite rise to that level, mostly because Fogel can’t seem to resist the temptation to gild the comedy lily now and then. But it’s certainly fast, funny, and whimsically silly in a sort of cartoon way. So, as the Bard wrote, “’tis enough, ‘twill serve.”

From a purely musical point of view, this “Barber” had me on its side from the first notes of the famous overture. Conductor Jonathan Brandini found levels of nuance in it that I’d never heard before and which made it seem fresh and new—no small trick with music that is so familiar that Warner Brothers could use it for a Bugs Bunny soundtrack (“The Rabbit of Seville,”1950; it you haven’t seen it, you must) knowing that the audience would get the jokes. Brandini’s perfectly paced conducting of the finale was a delightful demonstration of why Rossini was sometimes called “Signor Crescendo.”

L-R: Nathan Stark, Patrick Carfizzi
Photo: Eric Woolsey

Better yet Fogel, unlike most directors at OTSL, resisted the temptation to fill the stage with distracting pantomime and elected instead just let us sit and enjoy the music.  For that alone I could have given him a laurel wreath.

His cast is splendid. Baritone Justin Austin, a powerfully dramatic Scott Joplin/Remus in last season’s “Treemonisha,” displays a radically different musical and theatrical side to his talent as the wily, cheerfully self-assured Figaro. His Rosina is mezzo Hongni Wu, expertly mixing comedy and coloratura in her OTSL debut.

Tenor Andrew Morstein is a perfect foil for them as the moonstruck Count Almaviva, desperate to woo Rosina before she can be forced into a marriage of inconvenience by her pompous guardian Dr. Bartolo.

L-R: Andrew Morstein, Hongni Wu
Photo: Eric Woolsey

Speaking of whom, bass-baritone Nathan Stark does a wonderful “slow burn” as Bartolo—you can almost see him turning purple and shooting steam out of his ears, like a Chuck Jones animation. He sang Mozart’s Bartolo in OTSL’s  “The Marriage of Figaro” in 2019 with equal authority. He rattles off the those sixteenth- and thirty-second notes in Bartolo's Act I (Rossini's Act II) scene with Rosina with aplomb.

Bass-baritone Patrick Carfizzi, last seen on the OTSL stage as the con artist Dr. Dulcimara in “The Elixir of Love” (2014), is equally at home as the shifty Don Basilio, happy to change sides for the right price. He, too, sounds impressively comfortable with the machine-gun patter, notably in the famous “gossip” song ("l vecchiotto cerca moglie") in which he unfurls a plot to use fake news to undermine Almaviva.

Rounding out this fine ensemble are baritone David Wolfe as Almaviva’s servant Fiorello, soprano Chase Sanders as Bartolo’s ancient governess Berta, and bass Jared Werlein as the Officer whose sunflower-wielding cops try to deal with the chaos at Chez Bartolo at the end of Act I.

L-R: Nathan Stark, Patrick Carfizzi, Hongni Wu
Justin Austin, Andrew Morstein, Chase Sanders
Photo: Eric Woolsey 

The continuing popularity of “The Barber of Seville” is remarkable when you consider that the composer dashed it off in three weeks. He didn’t even have time to write an original overture, choosing instead to recycle one he had used for two previous operas, "Aureliano in Palmira" and "Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra." Which is why none of the engaging tunes in that impeccably played overture appear in the actual opera.

But then, everyone needs a good laugh now and then. Especially now.

Performances of this unapologetically silly “Barber of Seville” are sung in English with English supertitles and run through June 29th at the Loretto-Hilton Center on the Webster University campus. Run time is around two hours and thirty minutes including intermission. More information is available at the Opera Theatre web site.