The Prickly Question of Power and Love

by Susanne Krekel

A New Production of Rossini’s Barber of Sevilla at the Munich Theater am Gärtnerplatz on July 8, 2021

The first thing to catch our attention as the curtain rises after the ouverture are spikes. The entire facade of Don Bartolo’s house is covered in photos of cactus spikes - a cactus under a rainy cloud had already adorned the first curtain - and we shall see later on that the interior of Bartolo’s and Rosinas’s home - except for her room, all in roses - is decorated in the same way. This interior comprises also a bourgeois salon, complete with television set and sofa, and also a barber’s chair and a skeleton. Each of these items will have its moment of glory later on, in Johannes Leiacker’s scenography nothing is here without reason. A spiky exterior, a clear warning off. The same building, however, houses a brothel. Now people begin to show up: enter poor student Lindoro, alias the Count Almaviva, accompanied by his servant Fiorillo, sung by Daniel Gutmann who also plays the guitar. He tells all and sundry that he wants to marry Rosina, the beautiful (and rich) heiress who lives here with her guardian, Don Bartolo. Enter also a group of Mariachi, the men’s choir in grey street suits, three ladies of the aforementioned establishment, three handymen, two priests in black cassocks and round hats, and a single mother who clearly owes the inhabitant of her pram to Almaviva, as well as the baby she’s expecting. Aha! - All those people are busy, come and go, act and interact and so funny and ironic is this background action that it takes all of the charm of the music to take us back to the main story. It’s pretty fashionable these days to add one or a few imaginary characters and sometimes it can be quite disturbing to see someone on stage who doesn’t belong there and instead of following the piece having to wonder what it’s all about. With Josef E. Köpplinger, all this makes sense, those characters are issued right from the less evident ironic side of the music. Some of them, one of the three ladies in particular, dressed and made up à la Marilyn Monroe, and a rubicond hatchet-swinging butcher with his rubicond wife and daughter, come of the pop culture of the early sixties, and along with the scenography and Alfred Meyerhofer’s suggestive costumes, place the action in this period of time. Sevilla, Spain, the Franco dictature, here we go, and what seemed just an amusing story takes on a somewhat more sombre tone. This ambiguity is present also in the deceptive lightness of Rossini’s music and is at the core of tonight’s show.

Lindoro/Almaviva has, by the means of a lovely cavatina, attracted the attention of his beloved and now he wonders how to get her out of Don Bartolo’s grasp. Enter now : Figaro! And he makes a spectacular entry, he rolls in on a red Vespa. Baritone Matija Meić incarnates the Barber with energy and wonderful abandon. He sings his Largo al Factotum with ease, distributing sweets to some rascally kids at the same time, seemingly effortless and with all of the character’s conviction. With his big bronze voice and stage presence, he utterly deserves the applause that rewards every aria and ensemble throughout tonight’s show.

Rosina is sung by soprano Jennifer O’Loughlin, perfect with her generous voice and admirable acting. Her singing is pure joy and Rosina is in good hands with her. Just as admirable is tenor Gyula Rab, aka Lindoro, aka Almaviva. With a voice as dynamic as his stage play, he exploses in the scene of the drunken sailor: Figaro having suggested that Almaviva enter Bartolo’s house under this disguise, he appears in a red marine uniform and slightly soiled greatcoat, and sings, runs, dances, disappears through one door and reappears through another… This play with doors is another one of the thousand comic elements of this spirited and clever stage direction, and it also points to the sixties and the classic comedies of that time. During most of the interior scenes, there will be people coming and going, surprising themselves or others, jumping over the sofa or fainting on it… The drunken sailor has made such a nuisance of himself that the guard - also in red marine uniform - is called, but when they are about to arrest Almaviva, he discreetly shows his papers to the leader and - oh wait, all right, it’s the Count - they salute and retreat. Everyone is at their wit’s end and the following final ensemble goes ever crescendo and we have to salute now the orchestra of the Theater am Gärtnerplatz and their conductor, Michael Brandstätter for creating such a sound with a reduced team, anti-Covid measures being still firmly in place for cultural events (even if football supporters all over Europe can huddle and cuddle as they please without a mask…). The smaller orchestra has its upsides however : we get to better appreciate the subtleties of the orchestration and there is no danger of the orchestra covering the singers. Bravos for the orchestra in any case - they were wonderful.

Act II is just as turbulent: Almaviva arrives disguised now as a priest and pretends to have been sent by Basilio, in order to replace him as Rosina’s music teacher. Gyula Rab is again very funny here, and his duet with Bartolo is simply hilarious. Almaviva and Rosina hide their intentions behind the music lessons and sing a hidden subtext as it were. Figaro proceeds to shave Don Bartolo and the lovers are free to plan their elopement. But now the real Basilio shows up and it takes all of Figaro’s genius of persuasion and the Count’s purse strings for him to keep quiet. Bass Timos Sirlantzis sings Basilio, and he is very funny and convincing, smarmy and bigot as they come. Again the comic genius of the singers and the stage action almost steal the scene from the original content. Bass Levente Páll is impressive in the role of Bartolo with his rich and warm timbre, almost too warm for us to believe him to be so mean - maybe he really loves Rosina? Oh no, he will find a scheme to quench her affection for Almaviva and to make her agree to marry him. Bartolo goes in search of the guard, in order to have them arrest Lindoro. Meanwhile Almaviva arrives with Figaro for the planned elopement. They meet on the balcony and Almaviva exposes his true identity and Bartolo’s scheme. Rosina is back in love with him and everything is fine. When Basilio arrives with the notary who was supposed to marry Rosina to Bartolo, Almaviva bribes him again to keep quiet and the notary marries him to Rosina. And they lived happily ever after and had a lot of children. Really? „Where have they gone, the lovely moments…” Rosina will sing in a few years, but that is another story. For tonight, we wish her every happiness with her noble husband and say thank you to the team of the Gärtnerplatztheater for the music and the laughter.