The Barber of Seville review – colourful but crass

Rossini’s score for The Barber of Seville so fizzes with life and wit that freighting it with extra material so as to generate more laughs seems unnecessary. In Welsh National Opera’s new production, director Sam Brown’s interventions and Kelley Rourke’s translation make the opera seem heavy going. For this spring season, under the heading Figaro Forever, artistic director David Pountney is updating Beaumarchais’s celebrated trilogy, following the Barber and Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro with the premiere of Elena Langer’s Figaro Gets a Divorce. The theme is justified, but this is a dismal opener.

Featuring Ralph Koltai’s striking sets, this staging shows no shortage of colour – the traditional barber’s pole stripes are emblazoned on jackets and waistcoats. There is a Monty Python moment when the male chorus returns for the first act finale in wigs and flowery overalls, looking like Terry Jones and Graham Chapman’s women planning to go and see Jean-Paul Sartre.

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There is no real philosophy nor politics here, though some fundamental questions remain. Why, for example, should young Rosina be portrayed as a prostitute, wearing basque and suspenders at her balcony window as if working in red-light Seville? She seems misrepresented both here and as Mozart’s future countess. And while Claire Booth manages some sparky coloratura, her lower range simply doesn’t project. Nowhere is the humour more crass than when Andrew Shore’s Dr Bartolo sits on the point of a massive syringe he intends for Rosina. Don Basilio and the guide dogs are funnier. Nico Darmanin’s Almaviva is bleaty of tone, while Nicholas Lester’s Figaro shines, as do his red satin trousers.