Opera reviews: Beatrice et Benedict and The Barber Of Seville
HECTOR Berlioz was inspired by Shakespeare from the moment he saw an English company’s production of Romeo And Juliet in Paris in 1827 and his final opera, Beatrice Et Benedict, written in 1862, was based on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.
At just under two hours without an interval, it is rarely performed, but it is ideal for Glyndebourne as a before and after dinner entertainment. Berlioz gutted Shakespeare’s play when he wrote the libretto, throwing out the drama of Don John’s plot to disgrace the young bride Hero on her wedding day.
Instead we have Hero and her Claudio (Philippe Sly) simply acclaiming the joys of love, while at the same time edging the reluctant Beatrice and Benedict towards matrimony.
Director Laurent Pelly sees the opera as an elegant treatise on love and music designed in shades of grey with 1950s era costumes.
Designer Barbara de Limburg’s set of pop up boxes from which the flag waving citizens of Messina hail the returning conqueror of Africa, Don Pedro (Frederic Caton), are amusing, though the plethora of boxes are intended to illustrate Pelly’s contrived thesis about Beatrice and Benedict as rebels “who refuse to fit into a mould and live in a box”.
Star of the show is mezzo-soprano Stephanie d’Oustrac whose edgy Beatrice exists in a state of constant irritation with confirmed bachelor Benedict, American tenor Paul Appleby while the London Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor Antonello Manacorda gives a spirited account of this gem.
Rossini would have loved the anarchic vigour of Glyndebourne’s The Barber Of Seville at its one night Proms appearance in the Albert Hall.
Athletic young baritone Bjorn Burger’s energised Figaro leapt up the steps to give the revered sculpted head of Sir Henry Wood a quick shave while singing the Largo Al Factotum.
Danielle de Niese, in cracking form as a provocative Rosina, trounced her bullying guardian Dr Bartolo, played by that master of comic buffoonery, Alessandro Corbelli.
Tenor Taylor Stanton looked and sounded good as Count Almaviva, and Janis Kelly made the most of housekeeper Berta while baritone Huw Montague Rendall made a promising Proms debut as Fiorello.
VERDICT: 4/5
Opera: the facts
Berlioz’s Beatrice et Benedict at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera Nr Lewes, East Sussex (Tickets: 01273 815000/glyndebourne.com; £80-£230)
Rossini’s The Barber Of Seville BBC Prom 14 Royal Albert Hall, London SW7 (Tickets: 0845 401 5040/bbc.co.uk/proms)