Opera UK's Barber of Seville deserves a break

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Touring opera deserves some breaks but you’d expect design your gran wouldn’t find passé. This set is three arches. The furniture is rearranged tortuously by the cast, under full lights. The "new" translation adds to the dated feel. (Rosina on her wedding night: "I’m craving the best sort of enslaving" Yeah? Lie really still and he’ll buy you a new mangle.) But for the second time in a month, I enjoyed Stephen Hose’s approach to this opera. Hose heads up a piano quintet, nodding direction from the keyboard. The tempi are brisk and exciting, the English is wondrous clear, the singing well tuned to the comedy.

Adam Miller is a jolly MC as Figaro, his baritone big, ballsy and hugely competent. Lest we think Largo al Factotum any challenge for him, he juggles as he patters. Martin Lamb is a splendid, bourgeois Bartolo, so small‑minded you believe him capable of tyranny. Belinda Evans’s Rosina is special: an Una Voce Poco Fa that is commendably controlled, alive with character and even funny. She was apparently on How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria — from crap acorns...
Touring (www.operauk.co.uk).

Opera UK: The Barber Of Seville