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Monday, January 24, 2011

OUTscene: (RE-view) Seattle Opera's Barber of Seville; "Entertaining as a Saturday Morning Cartoon'!

By M.K. Scott
OUTscene Editor

I must confess I am no Opera buff, and finally after 5 years since my journey to the Opera I was quite thrilled to go out and see the ultimate 'Man's Opera'. Most of the cast were men, played by men, and only featured 2 female cast members, the lead Female, Rosina (Sarah Coburn)  and the Maid, Berta (Sally Wolf).

When the overture played I was reminded of the same music used in a Classic Warner Brothers cartoon, "The Rabbit of Seville".  We could date back to me watching the Bugs Bunny-Road runner show every Saturday morning to the time when I was first exposed to the music of the Barber of Seville. You certainly would never have experienced this early pop culture today.

Rossini's opera buffa, Barber of Seville, is very, very funny. Just like a Classic Cartoon.

The Production running through the 29th at McCaw Hall, is the farcical tale of Count Almaviva (The very sexy, Nicholas Phan), who falls for the beautiful Rosina, ward of the conniving Dr. Bartolo (Patrick Carflizzi) and who wants to marry Rosina, too. What's a hapless Count to do? Enter Figaro (David A. Moore) -- barber, doctor, matchmaker and man-about-town -- who has his nose in every household in Seville and loads of time on his hands.

The Opera is great and even the acting is greater. The physical comedy is superb, with each unique character adding to the fray unfolding at the house of Doctor Bartolo. The cast is certainly helped along by an extraordinary 4-side set (designed by John Stoddart) - a life-sized, rotating dollhouse for the characters to plot, pout, scream, spy and dote in.

The Barber of Seville runs through January 29th at McCaw Hall For tickets Click here!

  

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