[Met Performance] CID:236010



Il Barbiere di Siviglia
Metropolitan Opera House, Tue, December 25, 1973




Il Barbiere di Siviglia (353)
Gioachino Rossini | Cesare Sterbini
Figaro
Dominic Cossa

Rosina
Frederica von Stade

Count Almaviva
Luigi Alva

Dr. Bartolo
Fernando Corena

Don Basilio
Ezio Flagello

Berta
Cynthia Munzer

Fiorello
David Holloway

Sergeant
Charles Anthony

Ambrogio
Peter Sliker


Conductor
John Pritchard


Director
Cyril Ritchard

Designer
Eugene Berman

Stage Director
Patrick Tavernia





Il Barbiere di Siviglia received ten performances this season.
Throughout this season, Rosina sang Contro un cor in the Lesson Scene.

Review 1:

Review of Desmond Shawe-Taylor in the New Yorker

Except for the Almaviva (Luigi Alva) and the Dr. Bartolo (Fernando Corena), all the principals of the Metropolitan Opera's Christmas Day revival of Rossini's "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" were new to their roles in the house; and, considering the minimal rehearsal time that is available when standard works are added to a large repertory, the performance went pretty well. The orchestra was in good form but for a little trouble in the horn department; and John Pritchard's direction had a lilt and grace that were just right for the delightful score.

The most important of the newcomers onstage was Frederica von Stade as Rosina. Already well known for her Cherubino and numerous smaller roles, this musical and intelligent mezzo charmed the audience with her modest, engaging demeanor and clear, agile singing. She looks markedly un-Spanish, and might be one of the more lively heroines of Victorian fiction; but soon after she had started on "Una voce" a sudden, and loving piano inflection on the first "Lindoro" (her suitor's assumed name) showed her to be thoroughly inside the part. I also greatly enjoyed the Figaro of Dominic Cossa, a tall and supple fellow who might well prove (to cite Beaumarchais, quoted in the program) "the terror of husbands, the darling of wives," and who had no need to resort to falsetto when he had to imitate the tenor's sentimental high A in the last-act trio. Mr. Alva is not quite Beaumarchais's "young Spanish lord ... vital and passionate," and a sweeter, fuller tone is certainly wanted for the love songs; but he is a master of absurd disguise and comic routine, and therefore able to carry off the later scenes with telling glee. Mr. Corena, who felt vocally out of sorts and omitted his aria, made nonetheless a very funny and resourceful Dr. Bartolo, in contrast to Ezio Flagello who sounded fuzzy as Don Basilio, and whose notions of comedy did not get far beyond red football stockings and bare knees under a greasy soutane. Cynthia Munzer made a good deal of the aria di sorbetto that is Berta's solo opportunity, with a wild and somewhat distraught look that suggested an incipient Azucena.

Photograph of Frederica von Stade as Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia by James Heffernan/Metropolitan Opera.



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