Avant-garde and Fun

Often when the avant-garde takes on an early nineteenth century opera, the outcome is quite dreary, if not altogether boring. Especially if the opera is one of the four best and most amusing music comedies of the century: Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Verdi's Falstaff. Yet, when for dearth of money, the Rossini Opera Festival (ROF) turned to an avant-garde group — the professors and students of the Art Academy of Urbino — the outcome was a philologically perfect comic masterpiece which deserves to travel to opera houses in Italy and abroad, and to festivals such as Wiener Festwochen, normally held in May and June each year.

The opera has been often reviewed here (eg Simply Exquisite, 26 April 2012)...