SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE - REVIEW OF 2025 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Glimmerglass Festival once again tips its hat to Broadway by producing Sunday In The Park With George, the 1984 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine.  The musical has won a carload of awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1985.

George of the title is French painter Georges Seurat who painted A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte between 1884 and 1886. The island is in the Seine and was frequented by ordinary Parisians on Sundays and Seurat wanted to capture them promenading there. The plot of the musical is fictional so don’t try to learn anything about Seurat from it.

In the opening scene of the musical, George (John Riddle) tells us what a painter faces: "White, a blank page or canvas. The challenge: bring order to the whole, through design, composition, tension, balance, light and harmony." It is a tall order for the painter who is sitting in front of an easel and sketching his model Dot (Marina Pires). She is bored and frustrated (and very funny) at having to get up early every Sunday and stand still and pose as ordered by George. She is also his mistress. Parisians start arriving on the island.

An Old Lady (Lauretta Bybee) comes with her Nurse (Taylor-Alexis DuPont)and the latter plops her on the ground with some difficulty. The Old Lady turns out to be George’s Mother. The musical has 36 characters played by 17 singers/actors but many of them are inconsequential.

The action picks up and we see numerous vignettes. Artist Jules (Marc Webster) and his wife Yovonne (Claire McCahan) opine that George’s painting has “No life,” Dot befriends Louis, the baker, the two Celestes (Angela Yam and SarahAnn Duffy) argue over who will get the better-looking soldier and so on. George continues painting. 

John Riddle as George with the painting A Sunday Afternoon on
 the Island of La Grande Jatte. 
Photo by Brent DeLanoy/The Glimmerglass Festival

A pair of American tourists Betty (Claire McCahan and Bob Greenberg (Marc Webste) represent one view of the stupid American tourist from the South and they are very funny.

The plot complications recur and develop while George and Dot reach an impasse. She is carrying his child and she wants to marry Louis (Sahel Salam) and go to the United States. Jules sneaks away for a bit of fun with Frieda (Viviana Aurelia Goodwin) and his wife Yvonne finds out about it. Oops. Mayhem breaks out on the island. George takes control, after all it is his painting, and its subjects take their place in A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte which will end up in the Art Institute of Chicago.

That is the first act of the musical with some humour, drama and numerous complications and the appropriate ending with the completion of the work.

But Sondheim and Lapine add a second act that takes place 100 years later, in 1984. with George’s great-grandson also called George. The latter has a machine called "Chromolume #7" and he is showing his great-grandfather’s work with that machine and with the help of his 98-year-old grandmother Marie (Marina Pires), the daughter of Dot. Marie tells us what her mother told her on her deathbed.  Then Marie speaks to her mother in the painting.  Then a vision of Dot appears and by that time I have lost almost all interest in what is going on.

There are excellent performances by the cast. John Riddle is a dedicated, serious minded almost obsessed artist. He is lithe of foot and voice and a distinguished performer. The Americans provide good humour and Julius and Yvonne are notable for their work.

The sets by John Conklin are minimalist but effective. He set the standard for set design for all the season’s operas and deserves a standing ovation.

Director Ethan Heard does a fine job in the first act but I got diminishing returns in the second act that all but killed it for me.

Conductor Michael Ellis Ingram led the Glimmerglass Festival Orchestra for an enthusiastic audience.  
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Sunday in the Park with George by Stephen Sondheim (music and lyrics) and James Lapine (book) is being performed six times until August 17, 2025, at the Alice Busch Opera Theater as part of the Glimmerglass Festival, Cooperstown, New York. More information www.glimmerglass.org

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press, Toronto

THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET – REVIEW OF 2025 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas 

The House On Mango Street is a new opera by Derek Bermel (music) and Sandra Cisneros and Derek Bermel (libretto) It is based on Cisneros’ novel and it had its premiere at the Glimmerglass Festival in July of 2025.

The opera has thirty characters played by 22 actors/singers and is set in a poor, immigrant neighborhood of Chicago. The opera, like the novel, is episodic and deals with an array of events and personal stories in the lives of the residents of the community.

The main character is Esperanza (Mikaela Bennett), a young woman and aspiring writer. The opera opens with her at an old-fashioned typewriter pecking away stories about her life. The novel was published in 1984 and predates computers but the central message of the opera and the novel is Esperanza’s desire to get out of the hellish neighborhood.

Sally (Taylor Alexis-Dupont) is an adolescent who wants to have fun with the boys of the neighborhood but the two sides may have different ideas about fun. Sally, we learn, wants to keep the boys at bay but her real problem is an abusive father that she keeps as a secret.

We have Lucy (Samantha Sosa) and Rachel (Kaylan Hernandez) who are prepared to be Esperanza’s friends forever. But that will only happen if she gives them five dollars to buy a bike. Are they from Sicily?

Cast of House on Mango Street. 
Photo by Kayleen Bertrand/The Glimmerglass Festival.

Geraldo (Angelo Silva), a young, undocumented street vendor has the most tragic end. He is killed in a street scuffle and the people  who witnessed the shooting “saw nothing. 

As I said, the opera has some thirty characters and the plotline becomes  unfocused and confusing. It would be pointless to name them all. The music seems to emanate from numerous styles that I could not recognize. More focus would have been better.

Set Designer John Conklin went to market in his set design. Two brightly lit towers represent two houses or whatever else you want. Extensive use of lighting patterns, projections by Greg Emetaz and by Lighting Designer Amith Chandrashaker provide a dizzying kaleidoscope of effects. Is there such a result as too much of a good thing? We get the life of a poor immigrant community, individual stories from many of them, an array of musical styles  -  it is too much to absorb on the first viewing of a new opera.

Costume Designer Erik Teague provides costumes that represent poor teenagers as well as more elaborate costumes for some who have different tastes. There is no issue with his designs.

Director Chia Patino manages the thirty characters in the two towers and on stage with efficiency. She does a fine job with the street fight and handling the emotional and humorous parts of the opera.   

Conductor Nicole Paiement conducts the Glimmerglass Festival Opera through the many musical styles that the score calls for.

It may seem that I did not enjoy the new opera at all. That is not entirely true and totally unfair for a new and thus unfamiliar work. The Glimmerglass Festival deserves kudos for commissioning the work and Bermel and Cisneros for creating an opera from her novel. There was exceptionally high-quality singing and some of stories were moving, tragic and funny. Unfortunately, I found the work as a whole disappointing.
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The House on Mango Street by Derek Bermel (music) and Sandra Cisneros and Derek Bermel (libretto) is being performed six times until August 16, 2025, at the Alice Busch Opera Theater as part of the Glimmerglass Festival, Cooperstown, New York. More information www.glimmerglass.org

James Karas is the Senior Editor Culture of The Greek Press

THE RAKE’S PROGRESS – REVIEW OF 2025 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

The Glimmerglass Festival has staged a powerful and stunning production of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress during the 50^th anniversary season at the Alice Busch Opera Theatre in Cooperstown, New York. The production features a strong cast directed by Eric Sean Fogel and the Glimmerglass Festival Opera and Chorus conducted by Joseph Colaneri.

The Rake’s Progress was a series of paintings by the eighteenth-century English painter Thomas Hogarth who charted the life of Tom Rakewell, “the rake.” Progress is meant ironically because Tom went from the heir to a large fortune to a life of luxury, waste, prostitution and loss of everything including his sanity. The aptly named Anne Trulove, the beautiful woman that he loved and abandoned continued to love him to the bitter end.

Igor Stravinsky was quite taken by the paintings and he decided to turn them into an opera. The libretto based on Hogarth’s paintings was prepared by the august W. H. Auden and Chester Simon Kallman  and was first performed in 1951 in Venice.

The Glimmerglass Festival production features Canadian tenor Adrian Kramer as Tom Rakewell. (The Glimmerglass Festival Program says he is from New York, New York! This is not the time to make mistakes like that.) He is from Toronto). Regardless of his origin, he turns in an energetic performance physically and especially vocally. He fulfills Rakewell’s complex role with superb singing and acting through the many stages of the rake’s life. It was a delight to hear and watch him

The lovely Anne is the antithesis of Rakewell and I pay tribute to soprano Lydia Grindatto. She plays the faithful and pure lover of Rakewell and pursues him until his bitter end. She sings the arias and duets with beauty and splendid vocal finesse. She makes the most difficult phrase appear simple, natural, and beautiful.

 

Aleksey Bogdanov (Nick Shadow), Adrian Kramer (Tom Rakewell)

Photo © The Glimmerglass Festival | Kayleen Bertrand

And we have the Mephistopheles of the opera, Nick Shadow (baritone Aleksey Bogdanov). He has the attire and manners of an English gentleman and tells the lazy lout Rakewell that he has inherited a large fortune. He invites him to enjoy the life that money can provide and Rakewell follows him to London to a “better life” in a brothel. Bogdanov has a sonorous and convincing baritone voice and manages to control Rakewell to the bitter end when he asks him for his soul in payment for his services. A marvelous performance by Bogdanov.

The first step that Rakewell takes on his way down is at the brothel where he meets Baba the Turk (mezzo-soprano Deborah Nansteel). She has a big voice and a pronounced presence on the stage. She may be considered nasty but she has, as they say, about members of her profession (and I mean prostitutes and not singers), a heart of gold. Baba marries Rakewell but when Anne shows up, she speaks well of him. I have no doubt that Deborah too has a heart of gold and she gives a grand performance.

Anne’s father Trulove (bass Marc Webster) sings with gorgeous sonority and sensitivity as the concerned parent who finds a job for the wastrel Rakewell. He has a relatively small roll but he makes the most of it. Well done.

The set by John Conklin is minimalist and unrealistic. The lighting by Robert Wierzel features generous use of projections illustrating certain events. They do the job. In the opening scene we see a cutout of the Venus de Milo statue, the one of the goddess of love with the missing arms. It disappears when Rakewell goes astray but at the end of the opera he thinks he is Adonis, the beautiful youth that Venus loved passionately.

Director Fogel handles the complex plot and characters with an eye to detail and drama. He gives us a coherent and splendidly done production.

Colaneri conducts the Glimmerglass Festival Opera and Chorus through Stravinsky’s multifaceted and complicated score brilliantly. We are left with a production to remember.
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The Rake’s Progress by Igor Stravinsky is being performed six times until August 15, 2025, at the Alice Busch Opera Theater as part of the Glimmerglass Festival, Cooperstown, New York. Tickets and information at www.glimmerglass.org/

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press 

TOSCA – REVIEW OF 2025 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

The Glimmerglass Festival is celebrating its 50^th anniversary season and that speaks of its longevity and the high quality of its productions. For those who have not been there, it is held in the Alice Busch Opera Theatre on the shores of Lake Otsego in upstate New York. Doesn’t ring a bell? How about it is next door to Cooperstown, the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame? That’s better.

 This year the Festival offers four operas among other events. The operas represent the usual eclectic choice this year of the effervescent Artistic and General Director Rob Ainsley. Puccini’s Tosca is the staple. Sunday In The Park With George is the American classic musical. Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress is the adventurous 20^th century classic  and The House on Mango Street with music by Derek Merkel and libretto by Sandra Cisneros and Bermel is a new opera.

Director Louisa Proske and Designer John Conklin offer a unique, imaginative and brilliant production of Puccini’s masterpiece. They have their own take on the opera and despite some aspects that may strike us as unorthodox or head-scratching the result is a marvelous production.

First, the singers. You can’t have a Tosca without a highly qualified soprano. American soprano Michelle Bradley delivers a stunning performance in the lead role. She has a big, brilliant and expressive voice that simply knocks you over. She can be the jealous woman who goes crazy over the idea that her lover Cavaradossi is painting another beauty, a passionate lover in her duets with the same man and a fury when confronted by a sadistic would-be rapist. She can belt out her phrases and express tender memories as in “Vissi d’arte”.    

The other essential part of the opera is the sadistic Scarpia sung here by American bass-baritone Greer Grimsley. Scarpia relishes his lust and tells us he prefers force over consent. He is a rapist. He has the great scene with Tosca where he tries to seduce her and rape her. He thunders his joy at torturing people and at his absolute control over them. We watch with delight as Tosca stabs him to death on the bed in his office where he had a woman before Tosca arrived.

 

Greer Grimsley as Baron Scarpia, Yongzhao Yu as 

Mario Cavaradossi, and Kellan Dunlap as Spoletta. 

Photo Credit: Kayleen Bertrand/The Glimmerglass Festival

American tenor Yongzhao Yu sings a fine Cavaradossi. He sings a sound E lucevan le stelle but he is out sung in his duets with Tosca.

Proske and Conklin put their own stamp on the production. As the lights go on, the set appears and it seems that the monumental interior of the Church of St. Andrea where the first act is set is being renovated. There are tarps and scaffolding all around except for the back of a large easel and a small Madonna on a pedestal. We never see what Cavaradossi is painting. The tarps do fall for the Te Deum at the end of the act but there is no spectacular splendor.

The second act is in Scarpia’s presumably opulent office. The furniture is ordinary to cheap and there is a bed with a women getting dressed after having finished the obvious. There is a table, a bathroom with a shower and a cheap desk. The torture room is in the back.

All the furniture from Scarpia’s office is removed for the third act which is supposed to take place atop the Castel Sant’Angelo. It does not. There is no parapet for Tosca to jump off and Proske solves the problem with a gun. Tosca shoots herself.

We may miss the Zeffirellian grandeur but surprisingly the changes do not take away from the drama and effectiveness of the production. There are many nice touches. When the sacristan Sergio Martinez sees Cavaradossi’s painting he is startled and when he sweeps the floor, he pushes the dirt under the tarps. Funny.

For the Shepherd’s Song, Proske develops a scene with a small angel, a priest and a ritual with the Madonna (I think) appearing. It is cute and necessary for the stage to be cleared for  the following scene.

Proske along with Conklin gives us an original and stunning production of an old chestnut.

Conductor Joseph Colaneri leads the Glimmerglass Festival Orchestra and Chorus to a rousing performance that earns them all a standing ovation.

The Glimmerglass Festival strikes a significant note for freedom and democracy. The cover of its impressive 158-page program shows an unprepossessing picture of a wall. In fact, it is the space where Cavaradossi will be killed and Tosca commits suicide. The photograph on the program is not an accident. Tosca is about political oppression, abuse of power and murder and torture of people.

Before the opera begins, we read projected on a screen the words Prof. Timothy Snyder about tyranny. I do not recall the exact text but these words from him give you the idea: We are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. He is talking about America today and the Festival shows guts where many Americans cave in to despotism.

Bravo Glimmerglass Festival.

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Tosca by Giacomo Puccini is being performed ten times until August 16, 2025, at the Alice Busch Opera Theater as part of the Glimmerglass Festival Cooperstown, New York. Tickets and information www.glimmerglass.org

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press, Toronto 

LOUISE – REVIEW OF 2025 AIX-EN-PROVENCE FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

Louise is an opera by Gustave Charpentier that has the distinction of being the first opera of the twentieth century or so they tell us. Charpentier (1860-1956) had a long life but wrote only one viable opera. It was successful for a while, but it has fallen out of favour, and one is grateful to the Aix Festival for producing it. 

It is a love story that branches out into family dynamics, social commentary especially about women’s rights and provides a vignette of moral standards of the time.

Louise (Elsa Dreisig) is in love with Julien (Adam Smith), but she is caught in the social mores and family traps of the era and there are few choices for working class girls in late 19^th century France. She wants to start a new life with her lover in Paris, the symbol of freedom, but her parents do not approve of her leaving them. She rebels and does move to Paris. but the breakup with her parents and her choice of work as a seamstress are not completely successful. In the end she does find happiness with her lover and with life in Paris, but she is wracked with guilt about her decision.

In the midst of enjoying the pleasures of freedom, love and parties, her mother (Sophie Koch) shows up and breaks up the party by telling Louise that her father is not well. Louise returns home to the tense and unhappy atmosphere and eventually she finds the strength to break the chains of family pressure and morality of her class and leaves her father and his curses.

Despite its broader tentacles, this is a sappy story, but Charpentier gives us a lot more than that and makes Louise an enjoyable work. He adds a couple of dozen characters from Louise’s place of work and Parisian society and creates a celebration with Louise’s coworkers as well as street parties with a colorful and fascinating cross section of working-class Paris.

It includes a crowd of pleasure seekers, street vendors and a night prowler who calls himself The Pleasure of Paris (played colourfully by Adam Smith). Soon Louise’s co-workers join the festive crowd, and all present a vivid and joyous scene in the opera. In the meantime, Julien is serenading Louise and her co-workers tease and even ridicule her, but in the end the two lovers leave together. 

Scene from Louise, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence 2025 

Photo: © Monika Rittershaus

The two lovers escape and move into their own apartment and Louise sings the opera’s most famous aria “Depuis le jour” about how wonderful life is, about being in love, about her first kiss, about life in Paris. It is beautifully done by Dreisig.

Nicolas Courjal starts as a tired, and brooding father who adores his daughter but ends up as a nasty man who cannot let his daughter grow up. Sophie Koch starts as a tyrannical mother, overprotective of her daughter but her character matures and, in the end, she ends up breaking away from the patriarchal family. The adoring father does not appear to accept change.

The four singers who handle the immediate family show vocal beauty without being stressed with pyrotechnics. The crowd scenes are handled beautifully, and they provide a much-needed balance to the family squabble and the need for the young lovers to break away from the apron strings of the traditional family of the day and strike a note of freedom and of course give us Paris as a symbol of liberty.

The set by Etienne Pluss consists of the stage of the Théâtre de l’Archevêchê being turned into a large well-appointed room. There are couches lined up at the back with large windows above that. This could be a huge waiting room, and it does not represent the home of Louise’s working-class family. The basic structure serves as the humble apartment of the lovers and her workplace as well as the street party. The windows are shuttered and closed to indicate change of venue, but the changes are subtle, and we prefer to watch the action rather than the set changes.

In the end this production of Louise expertly directed by Christof Loy presents us with a coherent, well-done work that deserves more attention and productions than it is getting. Loy and dramaturg Louis Geisler add a nice touch at the end of the opera. Louise’s mother exits with her when she leaves her family home. The mother has seen the light. The father has not.

Giacomo Sagripanti conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Opera of Lyon in a vivacious performance of a highly enjoyable night at the opera.

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Louise by Gustave Charpentier was performed a total of four times until July 13, 2025, at the Théâtre de l’Archevêchê, Aix-en-Provence, France. www.festival-aix.com

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press

THE NINE JEWELLED DEER – REVIEW OF 2025 AIX-EN-PROVENCE FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Nine Jewelled Deer is the intriguing title of an opera offered by the Aix-en-Provence Festival. It is by Sivan Eldar, Ganavya Doraiswamy and Lauren Groff who are unknown to me, adding mystery to intrigue. It played at Luma Arles for three performances and that required a bus ride from Aix-en-Provence to Arles. It also performed in the Théâtre du Jeu de Paume in Aix-en-Provence for an additional three times.

What is it all about? A program note gives us the basic elements of the new work whose premiere we are about to witness. I can do no better than to quote it:

A thousand-year-old cave painting in China depicting a drowning man saved by a marvellous deer whose existence he must not reveal; a cramped kitchen in modern-day India where an old woman takes in victims of life’s misfortunes and heals them through song; the garden of a former prostitute, where a monk teaches the secrets of “Enlightenment” – that supreme state of knowledge and compassion.

The opera is the work of Sivan Eldar, a composer and instrumentalist with broad experience. Her biographical information states that she started as a pianist and vocalist and has broadened her interests into electric and electronic instruments and more. Ganavya Doraiswamy was raised in Tamil Nadu, South India where she learned singing, harmonium and classical Indian dance. She further studied spirituality “with a focus on freeing individuals from power relationships and from identity ascription” according to her bio.

The performers are Ganavya Doraiswamy and Anura Sairam, vocalists, with   Nurit Stark, violaist and violinist, Sonia Wieder-Atherton, cellist, Dana Barak, clarinettist, Hayden Chisolm, saxophonist, Rajna Swaminathan, percussionist and Augustin Muller playing electronic – Ircam.  

Scene from The Nine Jewelled Deer. 

Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2025 © Ruth Walz

The performance takes place in a large hall in Arles where seats are installed on one side, and we watch the action on the ground level in front of us. This is not a theatre in a traditional form. The players named above open the show with one of them asking us to sing a one-phrase refrain in Tamil as she sings the song. Most of the audience joins in what sounds like a beautiful, perhaps haunting, prayer or invocation

The names of jewels are projected in English on a screen. DIAMOND, PEARL, SAPHIRE, CORAL, EMERALD etc. with comments about each of them by one of the vocalists but I do not know who. The instrumentalists play music that varies from melodious to dissonant, to jazz and such that I cannot put my finger on all the types that they cover.

The spoken text and the songs are in English or in Tamil. There is one section that lasts for about half an hour where a grandmother tells a story to a young listener and then the listener responds to the story, all in Tamil without surtitles.

The story of the drowning man and the deer that saved his life is told. The writers are careful not to identify the deer as a stag or a doe so as not to appear sexist. The pronoun “it” would serve perfectly without the necessity of any further explanation.

The blurb quoted above contains promises that may all have been broached but I did not get them all and some may have been in Tamil. The saved man keeps his promise to the marvelous deer and did not disclose who saved him from drowning until the King who is trying to find the deer because his Queen wants it, offers a reward including some virgins and the poor saved man breaks his promise and reveals his saviour. The King finds the deer and is about to shoot it with his bow but the arrow melts and the deer is saved.

The show stretches the definition or at least my narrow idea of opera but that is of no importance. New and innovative works are not just desirable but necessary. The Nine Jewelled Deer is based on ancient Indian tales that relate stories of Budha’s previous lives and incarnation. The opera is based on one of the numerous Jataka Tales that are, unfortunately, unfamiliar to me. There are projections of paintings during the performance and unfortunately, I could not understand their meaning.

The production is directed by the wild, wildly imaginative and brilliant Peter Sellars. I do not expect to understand what he is doing on a first (at least) viewing.
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THE NINE JEWELLED DEER by Sivan Eldar, Ganavya Doraiswamy and Lauren Groff, directed by Peter Sellars, visual artist Julie Mehretu played at Luma, Arles and at the Théâtre du Jeu de Paume in Aix-en-Provence from July 6 to 14, 2025 as part of the Aix-en-Provence Festival.  

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press 

THE STORY OF BILLY BUDD, SAILOR - REVIEW OF 2025 AIX-EN-PROVENCE FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

Billy Budd is a fictitious character created by Herman Melville in an unfinished novella known as Billy Budd, Sailor. It drew much literary attention competing with the author’s much more famous Moby Dick. Benjamin Britten was drawn to the story and composed an opera based on a libretto in four acts by E.M. Forster and Eric Crozier that opened in 1951. It was rewritten as a two-act opera that premiered in 1960.

Like all good stories, Billy Budd is based on a simple story that opens much more when pondered. Billy Budd is a young, innocent, decent and handsome young man who is “impressed” (taken by force) as a sailor on The Indomitable, a warship. He encounters decency and evil, hatred and malice and eventually is convicted and sentenced to death in accordance with articles of war.

Oliver Leith did the musical adaptation. Ted Huffman did the stage direction, adaptation, costume design and accessories. The two have syncopated Britten’s work into a chamber opera that ten singers who perform all the roles play all the instruments in the intimacy of the Théâtre du Jeu de Paume in Aix-de-Provence. They deliver a captivating 140 minutes of opera that is emotionally intense and gripping.

The story begins with Captain Edward Fairfax Vere (Christopher Sokolowski who also plays Squeak), a naval officer and man of culture, as an old man recalling the events of his life, struggling with his conscience and remembering the story of Billy Budd. We then go back to 1797 on the deck of The Indomitable where the decent Billy Budd encounters the ship’s Master-at-arms John Claggart (Joshua Bloom who also plays Dansker), an evil man. This is where we go beyond the story of one man but are forced to think about good and evil, justice and injustice and innocence and corruption. 

Scene from The Story of Billy Budd, Sailor. 

Photo: © Jean-Louis Fernandez

Claggart plots to destroy Billy Budd, and he plots against him including attempting to bribe him into starting a mutiny. He brings Budd in front of Vere on trumped up charges and the innocent sailor is so shocked that he cannot utter a word. Billy Budd has a terrible stammer and is unable to speak under pressure. Vere is forced to condemn Budd to death, and he is hanged on the ship’s deck in a terrifically staged scene that that leaves you stunned. 

Baritone Ian Rucker as Billy Budd vocally exudes the innocence, eagerness and humanity of the young sailor. He knows that he is innocent even if in a moment of anger, he struck Claggart who died from the blow. The punishment for striking an officer is death and Billy Budd takes the inevitable punishment with grace. A wonderful performance. 

The venomous Claggart is performed with exceptional malice by bass Joshua Bloom. He struck me as a man with motiveless malignity, a description someone coined about the villainous Iago, Othello’s destroyer.  

Tenor Sokolowski’s Captain Vere presents perhaps the most interesting character because he represents more than just the events of 1797. He straddles the moral code of the warship with the knowledge of later reflection of what he did. Did he lack the moral backbone to refuse to execute an innocent man? Is he trying to salve his conscience in old age? It is a subject for discussion that Sokolowski sings so eminently well in his performance of the role.

The musicians deserve a special bow. Finnegan Downie Dear, conductor and keyboards, Richard Gowers, keyboards, Siwan Rhys, keyboards and George Barton, percussion. They are on stage behind the singers ready to lend a hand, when necessary,
A superb syncopation and presentation of Benjamin Britten’s opera.
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The Story of Billy Budd, Sailor  by Ted Huffman and Oliver Leith after Benjamin Britten played four times until July 10, 2024, on various dates at the Théâtre du Jeu de Paume, Aix-en-Provence, France. www.festival-aix.com

 James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press

LA CALISTO – REVIEW OF 2025 AIX-EN-PROVENCE FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas 

The Aix-en-Provence Festival offers a beautiful production of La Calisto, Francesco Cavalli’s 1651 wonderful opera at the Théâtre de l’Archevêchê. It is splendidly sung accompanied by the orchestra conducted by Sebastien Daucé and directed by Jetske Mijnssen. It has magnificent sets by Julia Katharina Berndt and it all adds up to a marvelous night at the opera. It is done in the open air under the stars and who cares if it starts at 9:30 p.m. and lasts until almost 1:00 in the morning.

La Calisto is based on Greek mythology via Ovid’s Metamorphoses and has a noble theme of saving the world, but the reality is a lot of testosterone-driven gods and mortals, and followers of the goddess Diana. That means virgins, gods and men and a lot of sexual attraction, rejection and tragedy turned into apotheosis.

The main story is about Callisto (Laurenne Oliva), the beautiful nymph and dedicated followers of the goddess Diana (Giuseppina Bridelli), the virgin goddess whose followers are of course virgins. Oliva has a gorgeous voice, and she defines a woman of class and high manners.

Enter Jupiter (Alex Rosen) who wants to save the world but as we know he has more testosterone than sense. He sees Calisto and wants her. She rebuffs him and he wants to rape her. But his companion and son Mercury (Dominic Sedgwick), the god of lies, suggests a gentler method: deceit. Jupiter disguises himself as Diana and approaches Calisto sexually. Calisto responds positively. Kudos to Rosen and Sedgwick as singers and performers. 

But we know that problems are inevitable. First, Calisto approaches the real Diana lovingly and is thrown out of the group of virgin followers. Worse is to come when Juno (Mrs. Jupiter) figures out her husband’s ruse and takes revenge on the poor Calisto but that can wait for a couple of hours. 

Scene from La Calisto,. Festival d’Aix-en-Provence 2025 
Photo © Monika Rittershaus

In the meantime, the handsome shepherd Endymion (Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian) comes looking for Diana. He is madly in love with her, and she loves him but secretly because of her vow of chastity. Linfea (Zachary Wilder), an innocent virgin, has some amorous urges but she knows nothing about men and love. When the Satyr (countertenor Théo Imart) approaches her with a marriage proposal she rejects him, and he is very unhappy about that. The god Pan (tenor David Portillo) is also madly in love with Diana, but he too is rejected. Will Diana relent and accept sexual fulfilment. I won’t tell you everything.

Pan, the Satyr and Silvano (bass-baritone Douglas Ray Williams), decide to spy on Diana to figure out what she is up to! Well, she finds Endymion sleeping and sidles up to him amorously, but the three spying clowns see them. Endymion does not get anything.

We need more complications and some real fury. Who better than the harridan of the mythical world Juno (Anna Bonitatibus). She knows of Jupiter’s debauchery and descends to Earth for the details and revenge. She overhears Calisto's tears and questions her, recognizing in her story her husband's methods. Jupiter appears in the guise of Diana, but Juno recognizes him by the presence of his sidekick Mercury. In short, Juno figures out what her husband is doing.  

La Calisto has a large cast and many of the singers have more than one role. David Portillo sings La Natura. Pan and Furia. Jose Loca Loza plays Silvano and Furia. Imart sings Destino, Satirino and Furia. Bonitatibus is June as well as L’Eternita. Kudos for highest quality singing and acting.

There are amorous, humorous and dramatic complications carried by comic scenes, gorgeous arias and accompanying choral pieces that are a delight to the ear and the eye. 

The set by Berndt consists of a paneled stage with a revolving middle piece. Half of it is an open half circle whereas the other half resembles the rest of the stage. It is effective, practical and beautiful. The costumes by Hannah Clark are just what you expect immortals, nymphs and shepherds to wear. They may look suspiciously like fancy baroque attire but who are we to argue with the gods.

There is the ugly side of the opera where Juno turns Calisto into an ugly animal, a bear according to Ovid. But Fate intervenes and Calisto is turned into an eternal constellation. Jupiter and Callisto come down to earth to say farewell as a celestial choir celebrates the  lovers. And so do we.
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La Calisto by Francesco Cavalli  opened on July 7 and will be performed a total of eight  times until July 21, 2025, at the Théâtre de l’Archevêché, Aix-en-Provence, France. www.festival-aix.com

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press

DON GIOVANNI – REVIEW OF 2025 AIX-EN-PROVENCE FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

The Aix-en-Provence Festival is in full swing for its 77^th season from July 4 to 21, 2025 in a picture-perfect medieval city. Its eclectic program of operas includes Don, Giovanni, an adaptation of Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd as The Story of Billy Budd, Sailor, Cavalli’s La Calisto, The Nine Jeweled Thief, a new work by Siva Eldar and Ganavya Doraiswamy and Louise.

Don Giovanni is the big, classical opera of the season and it is conducted by the inimitable Simon Rattle with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. The production is directed by Robert Icke, a brilliant theatre director who is making his debut as a director of opera.

Like all directors, Icke wants to put his own imprimatur on the production, and he does that in spades. There is a wide range of changes, tweaks, adaptations that a director can do even with a work as well known as Don Giovanni. He can dramaturge the libretto and change the era, add or delete characters and change the spirit of the work almost beyond description.

Ickes does all those things, and he adds so many twists that I could hardly keep up with a very familiar libretto. Don Giovanni opens with the dramatic overture, but Icke adds stage action during the playing of it. We see projected on a screen an old man in a room with a chair, table and some stereo equipment. He is trying with difficulty to get some music to play on his system. After a few minutes of trying, he succeeds in getting the overture to Don Giovanni to play. He falls on the ground and we get a closeup of him. He is apparently dead. I assume the old man is Don Giavanni but, by the end of the performance I think it could be the Commendatore. We saw the Commendatore killed in the first scene, but he walked off the stage instead of being carried out. We are used to seeing the Commendatore’s statue thundering in the final scene but according to Icke he makes several appearances during the performance. 

Andrè Schuen , Amitai Pat Photo (© Monika Ritterhaus)

My initial complaint to seeing the Commendatore, if it was him, was that I paid attention to the scene instead of listening to the great overture. The situation became worse when I could not figure out who is who as between Don Givanni and the Commendatore. And that is just the beginning of Icke’s tinkering more accurately bludgeoning Mozart’s and Da Ponte’s work.

Before outlining some other aspects of Icke’s approach, I want to give credit to the performers. I start with the women who excelled in their singing and acting. I start with Golda Schultz as Donna Anna. She is the tricky one who pretends to grieve for her father and is supposed to be engaged to and in love with Don Ottavio, but in fact is in love with Don Giovanni. Gorgeous voice and able to manipulate all situations, Schultz gives a bravura performance.

We note that Donna Anna comes out of her room in the opening scene where she was perhaps raped or at least molested, wearing a gray dress with no evidence of interference. She approaches Don Giovanni lovingly. We get her number.

Kudos to mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozena as Donna Elvira. Don Giovanni seduced her and abandoned her and now she wants to find him and tear his heart out unless he comes back. (a slight qualification there). Kozena captures the pain, anger and longing of Donna Elvira as she belts out her complex arias. She expresses her anger as she is searching for Don Giovanni on the street and he “smells” a woman. According to Icke, she is in her bedroom. Sure.

Zerlina (soprano Madison Nonoa) is the pretty peasant girl on her wedding day Zerlina is lovely of voice and face (but not too bright) and she almost falls for Don Giovanni. I think Icke takes her a step further and she kisses him. She knows how to manipulate her nice Masetto (bass Pawel Horodyski) even after he gets a thrashing. Masetto is a peasant, but Icke makes no point of that,

Baritone Andre Schuen as Don Giovanni and bass Krzysztof Baczyk as Leporello make a fine pair of vocal scoundrels, but I am not sure what Icke has in mind about the first. I may well have missed Icke’s point about Don Giovanni but as I said I was following so many confusing strands, his message escaped me. I am still trying to figure out how he got into hospital and ended up running around with a pole for intravenous medication.  

Aside from Masetto, the other nice guy is Don Ottavio (tenor Amitai Pati) who is engaged to Donna Anna. Ottavio gets some beautiful arias expressing ardent love and Pati does a superbly expressive job.

In some scenes videos are projected in the top half of the stage and the bottom looks like a basement. There is frequent use of projections, and it is not always clear what they mean. At one point Leporello leads Donna Elvira from her upper storey apartment and Don Giovanni serenades her maid. Her maid looks like a 10-year-old girl whom we see several times. Is Don Giovanni asking her to dispel his sorrows, and compliments her lips as sweeter than honey and more? The word for this is paedophilia but is that what Icke is getting at? Icke has surpassed all bounds and has gone on an ego trip that has nothing to do with sound directing.

Simon Rattle with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra play Mozart brilliantly despite the confusion on stage and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir handles the choral parts superbly. Don Giovanni is probably indestructible but there are times when Robert Ickes makes you wonder.
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Don Giovanni by W.A. Mozart opened on July 4 and will be performed eight times until July 18, 2025, at the Grand Théâtre de Provence, Aix-en-Provence, France. www.festival-aix.com/ 

James Karas is Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press

THE BARBER OF SEVILLE – REVIEW OF 2025 OPERA BASTILLE, PARIS, PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

Rossini’s The Barber of Seville is one of the most popular operas in the repertoire which means one has many opportunities to see it. That is enjoyable of course but it may also develop ways of seeing the work and choices by different directors that may raise more eyebrows than cheers of approval.

The Paris National Opera wound up its 2024-2025 season at the Opera Bastille with a production of The Barber conducted by Diego Matheuz and directed by Damiano Michieletto. Matheuz took a deliberate pace where he could, but those patter arias forced breakneck rapidity and he came through.

The singers were popular with the audience. Led by a robust, full-throated baritone Mattia Olivieri as Figaro, tenor Levy Sekgapane as Count Almaviva, mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina as Rosina and bass-baritone Carlo Lepore as Doctor Bartolo they did creditable work in the vocal department.

The issue I have is with Michieletto’s view of the opera and his overall presentation of it. He creates a whole world or at least community for the life of the characters involved in the courtship of Rosina by Count Almaviva. In fact, he goes out of his way to make us see The Barber of Seville in his conception.

It is a modern-dress production and the first thing we see is an ordinary car parked in front of a tenement building. It turns out to be Count Almaviva’s car (I think) and we would have expected him to drive something sporty and hence more expensive, but we let it go by.

But we do pay attention to the building where we know Rosina lives as the ward of the elderly and obnoxious Dr. Bertolo who controls her life and, what is worse, wants to marry the delectable young lady.

Scene from The Barber of Seville, 2025 Opera Bastille, Paris.

They live on three floors of a less than classy building in a less-than-opulent neighborhood created by designer Paolo Fentin. Michieletto and Fentin want us to have a full and frequent view of Bartolo’s residence. The central part of the set revolves so we get a full view of every side of the tenement. The plain street front turns and we get to the side of the building with winding staircases to the third floor. We will see characters going up and down those stairs with alarming frequency with questionable necessity to do so.

Another turn and we see a cross section of the apartment with Rosina’s tiny bedroom on the main floor, several rooms above that where the music lesson will take place in one and much more elsewhere that I cannot recall.

On the third floor there may be a kitchen, and I think I saw a servant washing dishes there but with so much activity going on it was difficult to keep up with who was doing what, where.

There is BARRACUDA SNACK …& BAR on the left which was in business, and we saw people eating there. There are apartments to the left and right of the Bartolo residence and they are occupied, of course, and now and then they become part of the main action of Rossini’s work.

That is not all. This is a whole community and Michieletto wants us to see it in full life and action with people running up and down stairs, making noise and showing a vibrant neighborhood. The costumes are a motley of the working class type and Rosina wears a short black dress and leotards that could have been bought at Walmart if Paris has such a store.

The neighborhood gets more vibrant when Don Basilio (Luca Pisaroni) sings the famous aria “La calumnia.” There is no need for him to do much except deliver it with sonority and conviction. In this production he uses the stairs and goes all over the place. But that is not enough. There are people on the street holding anti-Almaviva signs nicely printed. The aria is heard in the first act, and we do not know that Lindoro is in fact the count and why and how do the neighbors know what Don Basilio is singing about?

It is impossible to ruin The Barber of Seville if you have decent singers, a good chorus and a good orchestra. This production had all of that in spades. Diego Matheuz conducted the orchestra and chorus of the Paris National Opera with exemplary playing and singing even if I thought he took some parts a bit on the slow side.

I have no complaints about the singers. They were kept so busy doing other things that sometimes I doubted they had time to concentrate on their vocal duties.

In fairness I should mention that I saw the 55^th performance of this production which received a positive reception from the audience. Chacun a son gout, as the French would say.            

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The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini continues until July 13, 2025, at the Opera Bastille, Paris, France. http://www.operadeparis.fr/

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press

CARMEN – REVIEW OF 2025 ROYAL OPERA HOUSE, COVENT GARDEN PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

The Royal Opera House is rounding off its current season with a revival of Bizet’s Carmen, by all descriptions one of the favourites in the repertoire. Judging by the applause, the production must be counted as a success and vocally it was. Director Damiano Michieletto adds numerous personal touches that may attract some and be questioned by other fans.

Mezzo-soprano Anna Goryachova leads the cast in the title role and all eyes are peeled on her. She has a lovely voice, not big but fine. She is slender and attractive, but we want a Caremn who is more dramatic and demonstrative. She does not try to dance and that is fine but surely, she can move her arms, her body, and feet, give us some kinetic energy. We want to see a Carmen who is a sexual magnet. Ms Goryachova does not fulfil those attributes.

Tenor Charles Castronovo is an excellent Don Jose. He is a decent man who feels guilty about not visiting his mother and he develops genuine affection for Micaela (soprano Selene Zanetti), the country girl sent by his mother. Unfortunately, he lacks the strength to resist the sexual magnetism of the gypsy Carmen and ruins his life. Castronovo’s strong, resonant voice draws us to his side, but we give up on him personally as a Don Jose but not vocally as a singer.

Don Jose’s competition is the playboy bullfighter Escamillo (bass-baritone Christian Van Horn). With the unforgettable “Toreador” Escamillo expresses the ultimate in machismo, and Carmen falls for him. He expresses his manliness again when he drops by the thieves’ lair to see her again and invite her to the bullfight. Love triumphs, so to speak.

Micaela is sent by Don Jose’s mother to give him a kiss and ask him to visit his mother. She does affectingly and Don Jose does fall in love with her, and we should too. But Michieletto dresses her up like a frump and she wears glasses. Villages produce attractive girls, and some effort should have been made to make Micaela more appealing instead of working in the other direction. The costume designer is Carla Teti.

Anna Goryachova as Carmen. The Royal Opera ©2025 Marc Brenner

Michieletto adds another character whom we recognize as Don Jose’s mother. She appears a few times from the start as a silent character (is she a ghost, a figment of the imagination. Don Jose’s conscience?) When Don Jose abandons Micaela and runs after Carmen, the mother tosses a rose that she held in her hand at him. She appears at the end when her son strangles Carmen. Interesting?

He changes the occupation of Don Jose and his regiment into policemen instead of soldiers. They occupy a small building on a revolving stage, and it simplifies their uniforms to dull grey instead of officers’ attire. The children in the first scene do not march but they sing the march song. Policemen do not march but what is gained by changing the soldiers to cops?

The one-room police station stays on the stage throughout the performance including on the mountain where the thieves are waiting for victims to rob. We have a scene in a room that could be found in a small apartment, but we are supposed to be in the open-air freedom of the mountains. The set was designed by Paolo Fantin,

Even the final scene where Don Jose is begging Carman to run away with him, the two are supposed to be outside the bull-fighting arena. Instead, they are in a deserted area in the middle of nowhere.

This is a modern dress production that pays little attention to who wears what or where. We get street clothes of all kinds and colours. In a criminal den there should be some indication of where they are.

No one can complain about the performance of the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House conducted by Ariane Matiakh. It gave a superb performance as did the Royal Opera Chorus, William Spaulding, Chorus Director. Much of the applause may have been for them.

In short, a well sung production with Director Damiano Michieletto making numerous changes to the libretto that did not seem to add anything to the opera.
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Carmen by Georges Bizet played until July 5, 2025, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, England. www.roh.org.uk

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press

SAUL – REVIEW OF 2025 GLYNDEBOURNE FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

Composing and having an opera produced in the 18^th century was a complex business unless you stuck to Greek mythology. There are some fantastic stories in the Old Testament, but you could only write holy oratorios if you wanted your work produced. Things were improving at the time, but it was still risky. 

George Frideric Handel called Saul a dramatic oratorio, a stunning work based on the Book of Samuel about King Saul (Christopher Purves) and his son Jonathan. The latter had a close and dedicated friend, David. You may know very little about the first two, but you have met the statue of David many times and you know who he is: he killed the giant Philistine Goliath with his sling shot against all odds.

There is a story there but don’t call it an opera. Handel called it an Oratorio and added “or Sacred Drama.” That’s on the safe side of the law. He also called it “An Epinicion” a nice Greek word meaning “Song of Triumph” and further explained that it was about the victory over Goliath and the Philistines. Maybe you can produce this without the permission of the Bishop of London?

The Glyndebourne Festival has produced a magnificent and entertaining Saul. The opera has some stunning choral pieces and is visually fabulous and a pleasure to watch. It opens with an “epinicion” sung by the Chorus of Israelites praising the Lord and David who destroyed Goliath with a slingshot. We see a huge head of his victim on the stage which is rolled over and we witness the eye that David hit.

That is not the main story of Saul but the relationship between Saul’s son Jonathan and the low-born David is. Jonathan and David are friends who swear eternal fealty to each other, They are FRIENDS. Saul, with hair down to his buttocks, becomes jealous of the praise that David gets and decides that he hates him. Really hates him and orders Jonathan to snuff him. 

Scene from Saul at Glyndebourne Festiva. Photo: ASH

Saul has some gorgeous choruses, but we do not go to the opera to hear religious choruses. Director Barrie Koskie and his crew make sure of that with a large and splendid chorus lined up on the stage amid beautiful flower arrangements. They do more than sing. They move their hands and arms, make wild gestures and engage in physical acts that are entertaining. Saul pushes people to the floor and garners laughs. Saul is slightly deranged, and he is a comic figure who runs around the stage like a lunatic, and he is more of a clown than a king. That is how you change an oratorio into an opera or at least an entertainment.

Saul’s daughter Michal (soprano Soraya Mafi) falls in love with David, and she jumps up and down, giggling and the audience loves her. Her sister Merab (Sarah Brady) rejects David because he is not of royal blood, and she gets our contempt and no laughs.

The opera turns somber and serious in the second half leading to the glorious Dead March in the third act. It is a startling contrast that turns the oratorio into an opera as if that mattered.

Countertenor Iestyn Davies sings David with his gorgeous voice and stage presence. Tenor Linard Vrielink sings the part of Jonathan, David’s troubled friend who is ordered by his father to kill David. The plot and the biblical story of the succession to the throne and the establishment of the House of David are neatly solved: Jonathan and Saul are killed in war.

Unstinting praise must be meted out to the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and The Glyndebourne Chorus conducted by Jonathan Cohen. They have, as I said, some stunning pieces to perform and sing and they perform gorgeously. There are splendid dance routines choreographed by Otto Pichler.

Saul by any name is a grand piece of theatre and Glyndbourne brings out its best.
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Saul  by George Frideric Handel will be performed on various dates until July 24, 2025, at the Glyndebourne Festival, East Sussex, England. www.glyndebourne.com

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press

THE BARBER OF SEVILLE – REVIEW OF 2025 TRANSMISSION LIVE IN HD FROM THE MET

 Reviewed by James Karas

The Met Live in HD has wrapped up the current season with a resounding revival of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville directed by Bartlett Sher. It was originally directed by Sher in November 2006 and it holds its own almost twenty years later.

There are many reasons for the opera’s popularity but this is not the place to examine that. Our concern is Sher’s production, the cast and production values of the streaming that we could see in a Cineplex theatre.

Sher is a man of the theatre and he focuses on the theatrical aspect of the opera. We have an amorous Count Almaviva disguised as a soldier wooing the lovely Rosina. She lives with Doctor Bartolo, an old, dictatorial curmudgeon who wants to marry her. Of course, we have the cunning and scheming Figaro who will make sure that does not happen and the Count gets the girl as they say. 

Sher’s Figaro is fleet of foot, a master of invention and a delight to watch. Leave it to  baritone Andrey Zhilikhovsky under Sher’s direction to do all of that. Rosina must be a fast and clever thinker to outsmart Bartolo for the man she loves, even if she has no idea who he is.

The set cosmists of a number of doors that represent different rooms in Bartolo’s house. This adds to the fluidity and speed of the action. Rosina can go from one space to another and we can follow the action splendidly. Sher builds on the inherent theatricality of the plot and provides laughter and enjoyment as hr takes us through the story.                                        

Andrey Zhilikhovsky as Figaro, Aigul Akhmetshina as Rosina, 

and Jack Swanson as Count Almaviva. Photo: Jonathan Tichler / Met Opera

That is a good start but we will not get very far without a superb cast who can handle the theatrics and the singing as well.

Let’s start with the barber of the title, Figaro, who is a master strategist, knows everything, thinks fast and manipulates events. Andrey Zhilikhovsky has energy, exuberance and a remarkable voice. Yes, he is the man you want if you want to court a woman, Rosina, that you never met and who does not know you at all. Just listen to his opening aria, “Largo al factotum” and you know he is your man. And it so happens that the young, handsome Count Almaviva wants to go into Rosina’s house. Zhilikhovsky sings with the speed and vocal beauty that we expect of Figaro.

Count Almaviva (tenor Jack Swanson) has a supple and sweet voice, (just what an ardent lover needs) and with Figaro’s shenanigans, he will get to Rosina, give her a music lesson, and the rest is nuptial bliss.

Rosina (mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina) is a lively and lovely young lady with determination, gumption and self-assurance. She is sweet, of course, but listen to her “Une Voce poco fa” and you know who will come on top in the “who gets Rosina”  sweepstakes. 

For sheer vocal pleasure listen to bass Alexander Vinogradov’s rendition of the diabolic  “La Calumnia” which is a  text-book guide on how to defame people. The comic character is the nasty and lecherous Doctor Bartolo (bass baritone Peter Kálmán) who is putty in the hands of the Figaro-Count-Rosina trio.

Let’s give credit to the Met’s behind the scenes people. Set designer Michael Yeargan provides light, bright sets. Costume designer Catherine Zuber dresses everyone up in classic attires and revival stage director is Kathleen Smith Belcher.  The chorus director is Tilman Michael and the Met chorus does its usual superb work.

The Met orchestra is conducted by Giacomo Sagripanti with gusto and, in case I did not convey my enjoyment of the production, I will simply add I can’t think of a better way to spend an afternoon than at this performance of The Barber of Seville on a large screen in a Cineplex theatre.
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The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini was shown Live in HD from the Metropolitan Opera at select Cineplex theatres across Canada on May 31, 2025. For more information including dates for reprises go to: www.cineplex.com/events

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press