Shanghai Daily news

The Rome Opera’s version of one of the West’s best-loved comic operas will be a highlight of the month-long Shanghai International Arts Festival, writes Michelle Qiao

Rome Opera soprano Eva Lind (right) has the role of Rosina and Chinese baritone Liao Changyong is Figaro in the Sino-Italian production of Rossini’s great comic opera, “The Barber of Seville.” The performance will be one of the highlights of the upcoming Shanghai International Arts Festival.

Rossini’s opera “The Barber of Seville” is the hit of the current concert season in Shanghai.
After two performances over the National Day holiday under the baton of Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa and his Ongaku-juku, the Rome Opera will present their version of the opera next week in the Shanghai Grand Theater.
Says Paolo Olmi, conductor of the Rome Opera: “Ozawa’s style is very sensitive and the orchestra played so carefully, so profoundly, in the German way. My version will be much more fiery and fast and I will change and improvise some little things.”
Olmi is no stranger to the Shanghai concert stage. He previously conducted Verdi’s opera “Aida,” in a collaboration between the Shanghai Opera and the Florence Opera in 1998. This was the first Western opera performed in the Shanghai Grand Theater.
The “Barber” will be one of the opening musical productions for the Seventh China Shanghai International Arts Festival which will run from October 18 to November 18.
“It will be a very classical production just like the style of the Italian sets because the team is from Rome — not too modern, not too aggressive,” Olmi says. “It’s pure Rossini and very comic. Rossini wrote many beautiful operas but this is the best. Audiences used to sing it in the theater after a performance ended.
Italian opera then was like today’s pop music.” Rossini wrote the great comic opera in 13 days in 1816 and its story revolves around the romantic pursuit of Rosina, the ward of Dr Bartolo, by Count Almaviva.
The Count has fallen in love with Rosina but her guardian wants to marry her himself and he keeps a close watch on her.
The fun begins when the Count enlists the aid of Figaro, the quick-witted barber of Seville, to gain access to Rosina. At Figaro’s suggestion, the Count first pretends to be a drunken soldier and then a music teacher to get into Dr Bartolo’s house.
Dr Bartolo is aided in his efforts to thwart the Count by the devious Don Basilio but true love triumphs in the end.
Director Maurizio Di Mattia from the Rome Opera says he intends to put the original Rossini “spirit” into the Shanghai performance of the “Barber.”
“Why be angry? Don’t worry. Be happy. No problem. Enjoy your life. Roman people have this attitude to life which Rossini knew and understood when he wrote this opera,” says Mattia. “The ‘Barber’(Figaro) is just this kind of person. I have tried to put this attitude, this special Italian flavor, into the opera.”
Baritone Liao Changyong, who plays Figaro will be the only Chinese leading actor in the opera.
“Liao has a wonderful voice and is also a wonderful actor. He was born to play the ‘Barber’,” says Mattia.
Says Liao: “This will be the realization of a dream — to be Figaro in a full-scale opera version. I’ve only sung the role in concert versions.”
Liao has managed to win several awards in the world’s top vocal competitions for singing extracts from the “Barber.”
Rome Opera soprano Eva Lind is Rosina and tenor Juan Jose Lopera is the Count.
Artists from the Rome Opera have created the sets and designed the costumes and well-known Chinese coloratura and singing teacher Zhou Xiaoyan is the overall artistic director of the production.

Date: October 18, 20
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Tickets: 120-600 yuan
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