Pretty Yende, Javier Camarena, and Peter Mattei in the Met’s “Barbiere di Siviglia”
Opera buffa doesn’t get much more buffa than Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Rossini’s masterpiece doesn’t get much better than Bartlett Sher’s zany production which the Met Opera returned to the stage last night with a dream cast led by Pretty Yende, Javier Camarena, and the reigning Figaro, Peter Mattei.
It’s a LOL night at the opera that can chase away the gloom of winter and make one forget, at least for a few joyful hours, the prospect of dark days that may lie ahead. And with three of the world’s top singers delivering superb performances, it becomes a memorable one.
Yende, the South African soprano in only her third role at the Met, is sensational as Rosina. With a pure, crystal voice that gambols effortlessly across the upper register, especially in her opening cavatina “Una voce poco fa,” she flings high notes into the air that swirl like confetti, and she makes Rosina more personal with some distinctive phrasing.
Her vocal acrobatics in “Contro un cor” in the music lesson scene are breathtaking, and her duets with Camarena and Mattei as well as her part in the demanding ensembles that are as essential to Rossini’s comedy, are stellar.
Mattei, the Swedish baritone, pretty much owns the role of Figaro by now. He was Seville’s factotum of quality when the current Met production premiered just over a decade ago, and if anything he gives the role an even closer shave this time around. He has a strong, natural, and confident voice with a remarkable range that is at home from Mozart to Wagner.
Few singers today can keep pace with Mattei’s delivery of Figaro’s signature “Largo al factotum,” and the excellent Italian conductor Maurizio Benini gave the splendid Met Orchestra full rein to gallop through the familiar aria. Mattei and Camarena were in perfect sync in their long duet “All’idea di quel metallo” despite singing from opposite sides of the stage.
Camarena, one of the most exciting tenors singing today, always brightens any stage he is on. He has a thrilling voice that can soar to great heights or make fast runs sound easy. His opening “Ecco ridente in cielo” was solid and the performance grew stronger as the opera progressed. Camarena’s extended final aria was a real tour de force.
The Mexican-born tenor is also a natural comic actor, a sort of Jonathan Winters of the operatic stage. He is involved in every scene, with small gestures or guarded glances that bring a farcical romance like Il Barbiere to life. He is no less adept at drama, and Met audiences will be able to hear him in I Puritani later in the season.
Despite a fiasco of a premiere at Rome’s Teatro Argentina in 1816, Il Barbiere survived to become one of the most popular operas in the repertory. A romantic farce based on a play by Beaumarchais, it centers on Count Almaviva wooing in disguise Rosina, the ward of the lecherous Dr. Bartolo, who wants to marry her himself, with the help of Seville’s most famous barber.
Sher’s production is still a marvel 10 years on. It has a bit of everything. There is an attacking potted orange tree, a giant anvil descending from the flies to smash a cartload of pumpkins, and an explosion of carrots wreaking havoc. A runway lined with old-fashioned footlights circles the pit, bringing the singers in more intimate contact with the audience (and forcing Benini to conduct with eyes in the back of his head).
In fact, January is Sher’s month at the Met. The talented director’s exciting new production of Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette premiered on New Year’s Eve, and his creative team for that opera – Michael Yeargan for the sets and Catherine Zuber for the costumes – were also designers of this Barbiere.
No farce can succeed without the foils, and this Met revival of Barbiere has the Italian bass-baritone Maurizio Muraro as an excellent Dr. Bartolo. Mikhail Petrenko, a Russian bass who sang Frere Laurent in the Romeo et Juliette, is the avaricious music teacher Don Basilio. And in a promising Met debut, the Greek mezzo Karolina Pilou is Berta, Dr. Bartolo’s housekeeper, and sings her aria “Il vechietto cerca moglie” with verve and confidence.
A stroke of casting genius has the dancer Rob Besserer playing Dr. Bartolo’s somnolent servant Ambrogio, and he is now so much a part of the fun of Sher’s production for the Met it is hard to imagine a Barbiere di Siviglia without him in it. And, of course, there is that adorable donkey that comes on as part of Figaro’s traveling barber shop.
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