Twenty years after the premiere of the
Brooklyn Opera Society and Arts at St. Ann’s groundbreaking puppet-opera
collaboration, "The Barber of Seville," the two groups
are presenting an engaging and innovative anniversary production
of the opera.
Staged at St. Ann’s Warehouse in DUMBO, "Barber" features
a superb cast of opera singers: Chris Pedro Trakas as Figaro,
the legendary barber, druggist, doctor, schemer and rascal; Brian
Downen as the rich nobleman Count Almaviva; Julia Anne Wolf as
Rosina, a pretty girl of Seville; and Randall Scarlata as Dr.
Bartolo, her guardian, an old man who intends on marrying her
so he can get her money.
The singers share the stage with more than 40 puppets – miniatures,
life-size, shadow, giant papier-mache bodies and disembodied
heads and limbs – designed and directed by Amy Trompetter. A
pioneer in her field, Trompetter performed, designed and directed
the Bread and Puppet Theater in Vermont for 18 years, then founded
the Blackbird Theater in Rosendale, NY. All the puppets for this
production were rebuilt because the original puppets were destroyed
in a warehouse fire in 1987.
Kristjan Jarvi conducts his ensemble, Absolute, which recently
won a Grammy nomination for its album "Absolution."
David Neumann contributes his graceful, quirky and funny choreography.
"The Barber of Seville," one of the most popular comic
operas ever, is the work of a playful young man. In fact, Gioacchino
Rossini was not quite 24 when he wrote the opera, in 1816, based
on a play written a generation earlier by a courtier, adventurer,
dramatist and watchmaker, Pierre Augustin Caron, a.k.a. Beaumarchais.
The son of wandering musicians, Rossini was a bon vivant who
could reportedly compose in the middle of a party, or while fishing
or carrying on a conversation. He disliked writing a new overture
for each of his operas and often used the same one for several;
although perfectly suited to the opera, the overture to "The
Barber of Seville" was written three years earlier and used
in two other operas.
St. Ann’s engaging and innovative production not only does full
justice to Rossini’s musical virtuosity, but also enhances his
light, comic-opera style with a bit of commedia dell’ arte, a
touch of vaudeville and a generous dash of the Marx Brothers.
Puppets tease the conductor; at one point, the conductor actually
sings back to the performers; puppeteers interact with singers
and singers consult the puppets. The tiny Count puppet is embraced
by the huge limbs of his beloved Rosina.
Puppeteers’ arms and legs become the arms and legs of the puppets
they hold.
Inanimate objects, like hearts and barber poles, join in the
dance. Even the scenery is moved by puppeteers as part of the
choreography, as when a traveling wall becomes a bed for the
supposedly ailing music teacher, Don Basilio.
This production virtually envelops the audience. Puppet instruments
descend from the aisles through the orchestra and up to the stage
where they join the opera singers. A scribbling composer is suspended
in a basket over the orchestra as it plays the overture.
St. Ann’s has used Boris Goldovsky and Sarah Caldwell’s English
translation, which may lose some of the lilting melodiousness
of the original Italian but captures all of the knavery, tenderness
and trickery in the libretto.
Watching "The Barber of Seville," it can be hard to
decide who is having more fun – the performers or the audience.
But after the final bow is taken, it hardly seems to matter.
Clearly, a good time was had by all.
"The Barber of Seville" plays
through May 11, Thursday through Saturday at 8 pm, and Sunday
at 3 pm, at St. Ann’s Warehouse, 38 Water St. at Dock Street.
Tickets are $40. For tickets, call (718) 858-2424.
