Back from a mini tour of Yorkshire and Stockport and cheering for supporting act Indignation Meeting
New life breathed into old favourite
Barber of Seville
ALISTAR FINDLAY is mesmerised by this multiple ‘Visions of Scotland’ assault on the audience’s eyes and senses
The Star's critics ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MICHAL BONCZA reviews I Am Love, The Penguin Lessons, Freaky Tales, The Thicket
MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about the direction of a play centered on a DVLA re-training session for three British-Pakistani motorists
New releases from Steve Knightley, Jupiter & Okwess, Jason Palmer, Lisa Knapp and Gerry Driver, Kin'Gongolo Kiniata, Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey, Dan Sealey, Simin Tande, PAZ
Peter Mitchell's photography reveals a poetic relationship with Leeds
A uncomfortably misogynistic authorial voice that sometimes seems to lack insight troubles FIONA O’CONNOR
The Barber Of Seville
The Festival Theatre
Edinburgh International Festival
Rossini’s comic opera, composed allegedly in thirteen days, consistently rates among the most popular on the circuit. Opera buffs who find it odd that the official Festival should give airing to such a common favourite will have their doubts put to rest with Laurent Pelly’s wittily scintillating production from Theatre des Champs-Elyses.
The plot, with its stock Commedia del Arte characters and pattern of trickery and disguise, can be taken for granted. The dashing Count Almaviva, in love with enchanting young Rosina, is frustrated by her elderly guardian who has his own plans for his ward and her fortune. The resourceful barber Figaro comes to the rescue leading to an inevitable happy ending.
Pelly and conductor Jeremie Rhorer, with his period-instrument Le Cercle de l’Harmonie orchestra, let the music do the work.
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