Nearly seven years had elapsed since Vivica Genaux headlined a triumphant Opera Carolina-Piedmont Opera co-production of The Barber of Seville at Belk Theater. On Saturday night, a near-capacity house affirmed Charlotte’s enduring appetite for Gioachino Rossini’s comic masterwork. Most of the throng, newcomers and old-faithfuls, would probably have settled for the 2002 edition, surely a watershed in James Meena’s tenure as Op Carolina artistic director.
Meena decided instead on a complete reshuffle, even replacing himself in the orchestra with Tyrone Paterson. Bolder still, with the Saturday opening, Opera Carolina is spreading performances across two weeks, submitting to Loaf adjudication before guest artists make their getaways.
When Charlotte and Winston-Salem’s flagship companies double-teamed the Barber, scenic design boasted more variety, color, and overall appropriateness for the action. But David Gano’s stagey unit set nicely captures the period and place, on target for the bourgeois lair of elderly Dr. Basilio, who keeps his beauteous ward Rosina caged in her room in hopes of marrying her himself.
Adriana Zabala doesn’t quite match the vocal exploits that inspired my “Viva, Vivica!” headline for the 2002 Rosina, but she delivers all of the fetching wench’s foxiness, with coloratura flourishes as captivating as her comedy. On the vocal side, tenor Victor Ryan Robertson is on the same lofty level as the dashing Count Almaviva, driven to desperation by Rosina’s lively spirit and Bartolo’s laughable lechery and greed. Navigating the vocal terrain of the title role, Ryan Taylor was a stronger and more confident Figaro in the signature “Largo al factotum” — but also more American, shaving off some of the rogue’s wiliness and worldliness.
If there are slight comedic deficits from Rosina’s team of liberators, the corrupt old geezers, Dr. Bartolo and Don Basilio, more than compensate. William Roberts is a Puritan pyramid of sanctimony as Rosina’s venal music tutor, while Peter Strummer, also making a triumphant Charlotte debut, is a lump of smug pomposity as Bartolo. Strummer’s grasp of Rossini comedy measures up in every way to what you’d expect at La Scala.
Stage director Greg Fortner also knows the territory, tossing in slapstick bits that Strummer, Roberts and Zabala feast on with gusto — plus some choice bits for the chorus in the opening scene. There are no glaring weaknesses in this fine Opera Carolina romp and a steady stream of delights.
This article appears in Jan 27 – Feb 3, 2009.
