There are few if any sure-fire hits in the theater. In opera about the closest one can come to a slam-dunk is The Barber of Seville, and the Met Opera's holiday staging of Rossini's comic masterpiece is a delicious confection that is at once sweet and light and immensely satisfying.
It is a condensed version of Bartlett Sher's splendid 2006 production, a slimmed-down romantic romp through old Seville, sung in the poet J.D. McClatchy's lively English translation by an energetic and attractive young cast who are clearly having as much fun performing it as their audience is in watching it.
Sher, a theater director with six Tony nominations (and one statuette) to his credit, has become one of the Met's go-to directors over the past decade. Il Barbiere di Siviglia was his first for the company and it was an instant success. He inserted some clever comic business - an assault by a potted orange tree, an explosion of carrots, and a giant anvil attack on a cart of pumpkins - and recruited a dancer to take some pratfalls as Don Bartolo's befuddled servant Ambrogio.
The result was to make the ultimate opera buffa even more buffa, and the abbreviated, two-hour version the Met is offering over the holidays keeps all the salient bits, including the most familiar arias, duets, and ensembles from the score.
In trimming the opera for the holiday staging, the Met has mainly curtailed certain scenes and musical passages to a highlight length rather than excise them altogether. The overture, for example, has been shortened considerably. And scenes such as Almaviva's entrance as Don Alonso, singing "Peace and Joy" to Don Bartolo's increasing annoyance, or Rosina's letter-writing passage, have simply been edited down in length.
Hearing Italian opera sung in English can be a bit jarring, especially for fans familiar enough with the lyrics in the original language, not to mention singers trying to fit the new syllables to the score. But McClatchy's translation takes the edge off most of the awkward passages and provides some humorous alternatives, as when he substitutes "Buenas noches" for the familiar "Buona notte" ensemble (well, it is Spain, after all, and "Good night" simply wouldn't work).
This holiday version also boasts a fine cast with a couple of impressive debuts. Isabel Leonard, the native New York mezzo, returns as Rosina and is even more in command of the role than when she sang it last season for the Live in HD series.
Leonard is a portrait of a cunning little vixen, impetuous and willful but at the same time coy and flirtatious. She has a lovely coloratura voice and her opening act cavatina "Un voce poco fa" ("In my heart I hear his voice" in English) is tender and touching and would melt any suitor's heart.
Elliot Madore, a Canadian baritone in only his third appearance at the Met, is a swashbuckling Figaro, vocally and physically assured in a role he seems tailored for. Needing a shave himself, he races through a rapid-fire "Largo al factotum" ("Calling a barber in Seville" in English) with confidence.
David Portillo, a tenor from Texas, delivers an exciting debut as Almaviva, creating a dashing and ardent wooer and handling the complicated runs of his two big arias with ease. In another Met debut, Valeriano Lanchas harrumphs his way admirably as Don Bartolo.
Rounding out the cast, the guest dancer Rob Besserer steals his scenes as Ambrogio, and Robert Pomakov earns his share of laughs in the reduced role of Don Basilio. And then there is the donkey, always a welcome presence on the Met stage but especially in the holiday season where he looks like he just wandered in from a Christmas creche.
The Australian conductor Antony Walker, in only his second outing on the Met podium, but who will take the baton for the company's new production of Les Pecheurs de Perles on New Year's Eve, led the Met Orchestra in a spirited reading of the abridged score.