Il barbiere di Siviglia in Montpellier

Montpellier’s old Comedie would have been a perfect venue for Rossini’s most famous comedy, but this fine, late-nineteenth century Italian style theater is closed for renovation. This left the huge, ultra-modern ThÈ‚tre Berlioz, a barn-of-a-theater that the OpÈra National de Montpellier often makes work against all odds.
The solution for presenting Le Barbier de Seville in this vast space was to import an existing production from another barn-of-a-theater, the Deutsche Oper Berlin. The Deutsch Oper had some solutions of its own for blowing up Rossini’s diminutive masterwork to sufficient size to fill up its vast space.
To wit, performing it as a sort of commedia dell’arte on a stage wagon pulled by a tractor onto a beachfront esplanade in front of a lively square that was perhaps Seville. Though of course Seville is nowhere near any sea. There was a beach, and we presumably sat on it to watch the show, together with various little families, lovers, same-sex lovers and a donkey all of whom from time to time were doing their own thing.
It is Berlin after all, where artistic choices are sometimes questionable though usually amusing. The Deutsche Oper had hired Katharina Thalbach, a protÈgÈ of Brecht’s theatrically chic Berliner Ensemble, to stage the opera. Thus Rossini’s hyper-sophisticated early nineteenth century opera would have the gloss of hyper-sophisticated mid-twentieth century theater. It was simply the old-hat trick of a play within a play.
If you are getting the idea that all this could not possibly work you are absolutely right. And worse placing Rossini’s opera within quotation marks distanced us from Rossini’s inimitable musical immediacy. The theatrics were indeed clever (and there were abundant antics by the crowd watching [or not] the silly play to keep us amused). The great Rossini was reduced to a small stage on the stage. And the pit.
The OpÈra National de Montpellier had made its choices too. A big theater demands a big conductor, and the Italian maestro Stefano Ranzani was an obvious choice, with credits of the biggest repertory in the biggest theaters. A lot of big music resulted, and of course some weird tempi. And there was even some Rossini to be heard though this was perhaps the first Rossini this maestro ever conducted — no Rossini credits were listed in his program biography.
There were even a few times when a modest Rossini boil was achieved, but those were moments when the maestro was aided by the two veteran Rossinians in the cast, Simone Alaimo as Basilio and Alberto Rinaldi as Bartolo. It was a hint of what Rossini can be but almost never is in great big theaters.
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Bartolo’s ward and intended bride Rosina was Georgian mezzo soprano Ketevan Kemoklidze, a recent winner of the Placido Domingo competition (among many other competitions). Appropriately for winning competitions and for Rossini’s Rosina, Mlle. Kemoklidze exhibited boundless confidence. She possesses an unusually bright mezzo voice, a winning stage presence and obviously sings quite well.
Her lover Almaviva was Italian tenor Filippo Adami who sang very well too, and attacked Rossini’s fioratura with cool bravura. Mr. Adami possesses a voice with a fine edge and not much sweetness, attributes that would be more appreciated in productions with specific Rossini musico-dramatic values.
If Mlle. Kemoklidze and Mr. Adami came across as sophisticated performers, young French Canadian baritone Etienne Dupuis, the Figaro, presented himself as a consummately charming performer, but one who does not yet possess the finesse and bravura to fully anchor Rossini’s comedy.
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These three young performers are representative of a fine new generation of opera singers, well prepared vocally and musically, and willing and able to fit themselves into whatever directorial visions may occur. This Montpellier staging was obtuse, complex and demanding. These performers made all possible effort to pull it off, and they did. Bravo!
The mid-winter holidays are festive, and entertainments are meant to be festive. If nothing else Le Barbier de Seville in Montpellier was just that. Unlike Berlin, there are actually fine beaches not far away where we will soon find ourselves. All said and done this production was maybe right at home in Montpellier.
Michael Milenski


image=http://www.operatoday.com/Barber_poster.gif
image_description=Gioacchino Rossini: Il Barbiere di Siviglia
product=yes
product_title=Gioacchino Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia
product_by=Rosina: Ketevan Kemoklidze; Almaviva: Filippo Adami; Figaro: Etienne Dupuis; Bartolo: Alberto Rinaldi; Basilio: Simone Alaimo; Berta: Laura Cherici; Fiorello: Igor Gnidii; Un officier: Laurent Serou. Direction musicale: Stefano Ranzani. Metteur en ScËne: Katharina Thalbach. DÈcorateur: Momme Rˆhrbein. Costumes: Guido Maria Kretschmer. LumiËres: Bernd Hassel. Chef des Choeurs: NoÎlle Geny.
product_id=All photos by Marc Ginot / OpÈra National de Montpellier.