Guide
Key Word Search
Multi-Field Search
Browse
Met Opera on Demand
Sirius and XM
Repertory Report
Performers Report
Contacts
Met Opera Website
Il Barbiere di Siviglia
Metropolitan Opera House, Wed, February 12, 1992
Il Barbiere di Siviglia (446)
Gioachino Rossini | Cesare Sterbini
- Figaro
- Thomas Hampson
- Rosina
- Frederica von Stade
- Count Almaviva
- Stanford Olsen
- Dr. Bartolo
- Louis Quilico
- Don Basilio
- Samuel Ramey
- Berta
- Sondra Kelly
- Fiorello
- Thomas Woodman
- Sergeant
- Charles Anthony
- Ambrogio
- Frank Coffey
- Conductor
- Ralf Weikert
- Production
- John Cox
- Set Designer
- Robin Wagner
- Costume Designer
- Patricia Zipprodt
- Lighting Designer
- Gil Wechsler
- Stage Director
- Michael Edwards
Il Barbiere di Siviglia received eleven performances this season.
FUNDING:
Revival a gift of the Edith C. Blum Foundation
Review 1:
Martin Mayer in Opera (UK)
The Met celebrated the Rossini bicentenary with (no surprises here) ?Barbiere.? But we did get a distinguished cast, headed by Thomas Hampson in the title role. I don't think I've ever heard a better Figaro, vocally splendid, so handsome that his embraces with Rosina (unwisely added to John Cox's original production) gave a very wrong idea. Samuel Ramey reveled both vocally and comically as Basilio, and of course sang the big aria superbly, going all the way down without loss of volume. Frederica von Stade was Rosina: a great artist and an admirable Rossinian, but her gifts are for gravity and ardour, not comedy. Louis Quilico was a fussy Bartolo (who took heart medicine twice in one aria, which is medically contra-indicated). Stanford Olsen, still in the recovery room after the abusive miscasting he underwent last year, tried some "fioriture" that were seriously beyond him in ?Echo ridente,? and never entirely warmed up to Almaviva, but much of the sweetness that called attention to his voice is still there, and he has a neat comic talent. The Cox production is his Glyndebourne staging on a revolving stage, but the amendments that have been made have coarsened it unnecessarily. Fortunately, Hampson and Ralf Weikert's bright and lively conducting saved the evening.
Search by season: 1991-92
Search by title: Il Barbiere di Siviglia,
Met careers
- Ralf Weikert [Conductor]
- Thomas Hampson [Figaro]
- Frederica von Stade [Rosina]
- Stanford Olsen [Count Almaviva]
- Louis Quilico [Dr. Bartolo]
- Samuel Ramey [Don Basilio]
- Sondra Kelly [Berta]
- Thomas Woodman [Fiorello]
- Charles Anthony [Sergeant]
- Frank Coffey [Ambrogio]
- John Cox [Production]
- Robin Wagner [Set Designer]
- Patricia Zipprodt [Costume Designer]
- Gil Wechsler [Lighting Designer]
- Michael Edwards [Stage Director]