The Barber of Seville, 2024
Opera Holland Park
Conductor: Charlotte Corderoy | Designer: Neil Irish | Movement Director: Bence Kalo | Lighting Designer: Robert Price
Cast: Paul Grant, Elgan Llŷr Thomas, Heather Lowe, Stephen Gadd, Jihoon Kim, Jack Holton, Janis Kelly, Dragoş Andrei, Robert Garland
“for once in Barbiere the gags were genuinely funny… [Stinton’s] detailed direction drew the best from everyone, not just the Dr Bartolo of Stephen Gadd, whose ‘A un dotor’ (his doctorate is in archaeology, of course) was a tour de force, or the ‘English rose’ Rosina, Heather Lowe, who brought a velvety mezzo and lithe coloratura to the performance”
Opera Magazine, John Allison
★★★★★
The perfect summer opera
”Cecilia Stinton’s new production leans towards the immersive and playful… Holland Park’s tilted halo-shaped stage with its orchestra in the centre has presented challenges to some past productions but Stinton takes it all in her stride and builds it into the story”.
Broadway World, Franco Milazzo
★★★★★
This Barber of Seville may well be this summer’s most enjoyable evening out in London
"Cecilia Stinton’s brilliantly creative directing renders her Barber of Seville probably the most dazzling production of the opera since Jonathan Miller’s legendary 1987 Barber for ENO. Stinton runs with the energy and drive of Rossini’s music. The result is an unmissable evening of bel canto comedy, fun, laughter, and inventive acting, pulsing rhythmically to Rossini’s gloriously tuneful music… This reviewer had recently seen Rossini’s Barber in two world-famous opera houses. Neither in truth could hold a candle to this most memorable, fired-up production”.
Plays To See, René Weis
★★★★★
”a production as sharp as Figaro’s razor”
Music OMH, Sam Smith
★★★★
”terrific all-round performance”
The Guardian, Erica Jeal
★★★★
“This new Barber of Seville exudes brio and bravura, words too innately Italian to have any equivalent but themselves in our sober and unmellifluous language”
The Observer, Peter Conrad
★★★★
“A comic masterpiece staged with heart-warming brio”
The Telegraph, Nicholas Kenyon
★★★★
“Opera Holland Park’s Barber leaves you with a smile on your face”
The Stage, George Hall
★★★★
Cecilia Stinton directs a delightful new Barbiere di Siviglia at Opera Holland Park
”Cecilia Stinton’s new production manages to capture all the merriment and pizzazz of one’s first viewing of the opera without stretching to simple absurdity…
Purists may hate it, but this production has that most important of comic opera virtues – it’s fun. Robert Price’s lighting is sensitively judged, but it is Stinton’s thoughtful and organic direction that makes this production shine. Her direction is tight and character interaction is organic and credible, with no-one left awkwardly to the side”.
Bachtrack, Dominic Lowe