[Daily Telegraph, 21 December 2005]
Rupert Christiansen reviews Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Royal Opera in Covent Garden
The Royal Opera’s cheerful and colourful new production of Rossini’s most popular work is a copper-bottomed hit. Its principal virtue is Mark Elder’s superb conducting. For wit and polish, his interpretation is on the level of Beecham’s or Abbado’s, though in other respects his approach is radically different from theirs.