|
All the Ingredients
GIUSEPPE PENNISI describes a
rather half-baked 'Barber of Seville'
About one year ago (see 'Orchestral Nuances' in Music & Vision, 21 April 2011), I presented a rather extended review of recent productions of Il Barbiere di Siviglia which played in Parma, Palermo and a number of Provincial theatres in Tuscany and the Marche Region. A new and much awaited production was unveiled on 18 April 2012 in Rome; it is a joint venture with the Verdi Theatre in Trieste where it will be seen next year.
Just to summarize my previous report, Il Barbiere di Siviglia is the only Rossini opera which has always been on stage, even during the Romanticism and Verismo periods when most of his productions had disappeared from the theatres of Europe and North America. The libretto is a lot of fun and the music sparkles like good, earthy red Lambrusco wine, whereas Paisiello's earlier Barbiere is sentimental and slightly melancholic...
Copyright © 21 April 2012
Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy
|
