FIRST NIGHT: EDINBURGH FESTIVALS

Edinburgh opera review: The Barber of Seville at Festival Theatre

It doesn’t matter how manic the stage action is; if The Barber isn’t delivered without razor-sharp vocal virtuosity, it will always fall short
This production of the Barber of Seville comes to Edinburgh from Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
This production of the Barber of Seville comes to Edinburgh from Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
VINCENT PONTET

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★★★☆☆
A frequent complaint about trendy modern productions of famous operas is that they “ignore what’s in the music”. So one can imagine the glee with which Laurent Pelly put together this staging of Rossini’s greatest comedy — with the singers jumping and sliding around vast curls of manuscript paper, on to which Rossini’s notes are scrawled or magically appear.

It’s a mischievous conceit, and there’s plenty more mischief throughout this surreal, superficial show. It is, however, mischief of a very Gallic variety (the production comes to Edinburgh from Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Élysées). And if you aren’t a huge fan of silly walks, or double-takes and shrugs exaggerated to cartoon proportions, or entire choruses of geeky men apparently auditioning to be the next Marcel Marceau,