Rossini would have liked this.
I just got back to Toronto after a couple of days deep in the heart of Texas. It was a whirlwind trip, packed full of meetings with people in Houston’s musical and journalistic communities.
A musical highlight of my visit was the Houston Grand Opera’s season-opening Barber of Seville – a new production staged by Joan Fort, with sets and costumes by Joan Guillén. (This was the same team that created a Cenerentola infested with the cutest rats ever, a few years back.) It was pure fun: a riot of day-glo colours and bursting with goofy hijinks – even by Barber standards. However, underlying all the frothy stuff was a rock-solid cast, led by Nathan Gunn in the title role, with Ana María Martínez as Rosina and Lawrence Brownlee as Almaviva. I think Rossini would have been greatly pleased.
A musical highlight of my visit was the Houston Grand Opera’s season-opening Barber of Seville – a new production staged by Joan Fort, with sets and costumes by Joan Guillén. (This was the same team that created a Cenerentola infested with the cutest rats ever, a few years back.) It was pure fun: a riot of day-glo colours and bursting with goofy hijinks – even by Barber standards. However, underlying all the frothy stuff was a rock-solid cast, led by Nathan Gunn in the title role, with Ana María Martínez as Rosina and Lawrence Brownlee as Almaviva. I think Rossini would have been greatly pleased.
As I left the theatre, I ran into some production staffers from the Canadian Opera Company, who confirmed that the show will be coming to Toronto in a future season. It will be interesting to see who’s in it when it’s staged by the COC. I can’t imagine how Toronto could do better than Houston, on this occasion.
© Colin Eatock 2011
© Colin Eatock 2011
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