The Royal Opera’s 2008-9 season ends in a blaze of glory with Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Puccini’s Tosca

By Rupert Christiansen [Daily Telegraph, 10 July 2009]

The Royal Opera’s 2008-9 season ends in a blaze of glory with a superb revival. Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia will never feature in a list of my thousand favourite operas, but in a performance as delicious as this was, even I couldn’t resist its charms.