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Performing Arts

Figaro, the factotum of Seville

The Met stages smart and frothy ‘Barber’
Christopher Maltman as Figaro and Lawrence Brownlee as Count Almaviva in Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville.”

Figaro knows everybody and everybody’s business. He’s the ultimate wag, an insider, a fixer. Today, he’s the guy who passes out business cards, makes promises and makes good on his word. In short, Figaro is a successful businessman.

And he’s the famous jack-of-all-trades in Rossini’s comic opera: “The Barber of Seville.”

The MET Live in HD will presents Rossini’s 1816 masterpiece at 11 a.m. Saturday at Fort Lewis College. It’s one of the most popular operas in the world, and by all accounts the Met will give it a frothy turn.

That’s largely because of the American director Bartlett Sher. His imaginative 2007 production will be remounted with a fresh cast Saturday. You’ll see period costumes from hoop skirts, lace cuffs and satin pants to silver-buckled shoes.

You’ll also see a stylish set based on a whimsical idea of what designers can do with creamy moveable doors, ladders and a pretend balcony. Costumed stage hands turn the doors hither and thither as if they were rococo side chairs. Because the story is based on a satire set in Seville, add orange trees.

In addition, this version of “Barber” employs a “passerelle,” a semi-circular walkway that surrounds the orchestra. Sher was the first director in the Met’s history to bring performers close to the audience by resurrecting an old theatrical device. (Lest you think we live in a backwater, Walker White, our young tech director at Durango High School, recently created a passerelle for “Les Misérables.”)

In story terms, Rossini’s “Barber” is prequel to Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro.” Both operas were inspired by French plays of the time, the controversial and enormously popular Beaumarchais trilogy about class resentments that boiled over just a few years later in the French Revolution.

In 1764, the Parisian gad-about, diplomat and writer Pierre de Beaumarchais made a trip to Spain to sort out a family mess involving his sister. The trip inspired his three-cornered satire on the aristocracy.

“The Barber of Seville” opened in 1775; it featured a resilient tradesman who consistently outwits the upper crust. The comedy became the talk of Paris, and the censors smelled rebellion.

In 1781, the censors banned part two: “The Marriage of Figaro.” Three years later the ban was miraculously lifted, and “Marriage” went on stage. Shortly thereafter, Mozart composed his opera of the same name due to the play’s European popularity. By 1792, Beaumarchais wrote and premiered the third part of the trilogy, “The Guilty Mother,” set 20 years after “Marriage.” Three characters appear in all three plays: Figaro, Count Almaviva and Rosina.

In “Barber,” Figaro is single and self-employed. He’ll trim your beard, sell you a wig, fix your coat, arrange a secret meeting or pull a painful tooth. He’s the match maker who brings about the marriage between the Count and Rosina.

A few weeks ago, if you were lucky enough to see the Met’s production of Mozart’s opera, you already know the characters. The formerly charming count became the philandering husband whom Figaro must keep away from his bride-to-be.

So see the prequel and delight in an effervescent version of “Barber.” Sung in Italian with English subtitles, “Barber” runs about three hours.

jreynolds@durangoherald.com. Judith Reynolds is a Durango writer, art historian and arts journalist.

If you go

The MET: Live in HD will present Rossini’s “Barber of Seville” at 10:55 a.m. Saturday in the Vallecito Room of the Fort Lewis College Student Union, 1000 Rim Drive. Tickets are available at www.durangoconcerts.com, by phone at 247-7657, the Welcome Center at Eighth Street and Main Avenue or at the door.



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