A brilliant L’italiana in Algeri in Rome has Larry Wolff once again thinking about “singing Turks”
I hate to say I nearly cringe at the thought of Gioachino Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia.
What a joy when a comic opera gets you cackling through the whole night, discovering new nuances and perspectives from an oft-seen work and delighted with wonderful singing!
Mozart appears to find promiscuity a source of humor rather than something that is a fundamental problem.
The Barber of Seville turned out to be the most overall solid production of the year and even a bit of old-fashioned fun.
There’s that old joke; What’s the difference between opera and sex? Punchline; you can have good sex.
Unlike Mozart, the young Gioacchino Rossini seldom let his ambitions strain relations with employers.
Halfway through the overture to L’italiana in Algeri a pin-up cartoon of our Isabella, Jennifer Larmore, slowly slides up and down a pole, setting the tone for the whole opera. Cartoonish is indeed the first adjective that springs to my mind when trying to describe this 1998 production of Rossini’s opera buffa from the Opéra…
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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