Il Barbiere di Siviglia Music Gioachino Rossini Direction Pier Luigi Pizzi
Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Gioachino Rossini, Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro, August 2018
IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA
Comedy in two acts by CESARE STERBINI
Music GIOACHINO ROSSINI
Rossini Foundation critical edition / Casa Ricordi, curated by ALBERTO ZEDDA
Conductor YVES ABEL
Direction, Scenes and Costumes PIER LUIGI PIZZI
Assistant Director and Light MASSIMO GASPARON
CHORUS OF THE TEATRO VENTIDIO BASSO
Choir Master GIOVANNI FARINA
NATIONAL SYMPHONIC ORCHESTRA OF RAI
New production 2018
"Thanks above all to Rossini, benefactor of humanity." (1)
It is the appropriate and unanimous gratitude stated by the director Pier Luigi Pizzi for Gioachino Rossini. The Pesaro Master symbolizes joy, brotherhood, solidarity for the human race through his majestic and romantic harmony.
Pier Luigi Pizzi points out it for the maximum level of Rossini's music, the Opera of Il Barbiere di Siviglia. But he forgets - out of modesty - his job. Rossini's melody has the role of "benefactor of humanity" only whether his Opera is led by a culturally mature, intellectually rational director.
The choice of Pier Luigi Pizzi, to direct Il Barbiere di Siviglia for the 2018 edition, is the merit of the Rossini Opera Festival. The French-Canadian conductor Yves Abel leads the RAI National Symphony Orchestra; played by singers:
Il Conte d'Almaviva, Maxim Mironov
Bartolo, Pietro Spagnoli
Rosina, Aya Wakizono
Figaro, Davide Luciano
Basilio, Michele Pertusi
Berta, Elena Zilio
Fiorello / Ufficiale, William Corrò
Ambrogio, Armando De Ceccon.
Rossini's most famous Opera is a two-act comedy based on alibretto by Cesare Sterbini. The premiere was at the TheatreArgentina in Rome on 20 February 1816. The libretto is from a 1775 text belonging to the Enlightenment culture of Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais: Le Barbier de Séville.
Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Gioachino Rossini, Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro, August 2018
The success was immediate and continuous. Il Barbiere di Siviglia has never left the Opera circuit. The umpteenth version, presented in the most elegant Rossini music meeting - the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro - is an important creative performance.
Pizzi has a high culture, a historical experience. The first is his intellectual wisdom:
"I face this challenge with the wisdom that comes from so many reflections over the years, from so many abandoned projects, from so many hypothetical interpretations"; (2)
to the semantic analysis of a story:
"Today I start from the conviction that we are not faced with a farce, but with a comedy of intrigue and therefore I choose as a starting from the literary source ..."; (2)
to the cultural and political knowledge of the society of the time and of today:
"... that is, Beaumarchais, whose idea of freedom and equality in social classes, linked to the Enlightenment vision of history and trust in reason, represents the unstoppable progress of man"; (2)
to psychological education:
"A comedy of strong characters, not puppets. Rossini makes everything clear and logical with the brilliant filter of his irony. "(2)
Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Gioachino Rossini, Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro, August 2018
The union of these elements creates an exclusive Opera, with realistic characters, with meticulous psychology, with a high-level dialogue, of specific and current themes. The tone is as cheerful as Il Barbiere should be, but the Enlightenment argument is highlighted by the powerful confrontation between Basilio and Figaro. Figaro is not only the “factotum della città”but it is the essence of the society engaged in demolishing the tower of power despite aggressive guards.
Music, singing is compelling, determined. They are an orchestra full of professionals able to observe the actors and to connect, with symphonic perception, the singers to themselves, thanks to the skill of Master Yves Abel.
To historicize the events is necessary for a modern but at the same time traditional reproduction of Rossini. The director expresses it with intellectual firmness:
"Il Barbiere di Siviglia is a comedy of intrigue: it accumulated farce language over so many years. We have eliminated those that we call “caccole” in slang ”. (3)
The fake news is obviously an example of the historicization of Il Barbiere. It's the modernity of the Opera, thecalunnia is fake news posted on social media. The fake news is a "venticello", starts "dolcemente" and "ronza nell'orecchie della gente" turns into a "schiamazzo", and eventually overflows and explodes tragically:
“E il meschino calunniato,
avvilito, calpestato,
sotto il pubblico flagello
per gran sorte va a crepar.”
There are many victims of calumnies – "va a crepar" - in our days.
The other theme emphasized is the affection to money, not only Basilio but also Figaro, who has a price for his job as mediator. Besides, Figaro is a universal vain person. He sings his cavatina to narcissism, everyone likes him:
“Tutti mi chiedono! Tutti mi vogliono!
Donne e ragazzi! Vecchi e fanciulle!”
He did not exclude anyone, he even specified genres and ages, as a contemporary multi-gender.
The script concerns the artistic language of the author: "As you will see there are no costumes, but clothes from the Rossini era. No makeup or wigs. With such characters, we show the will to actualize the opera theatre, removing dust ". (1)
The Siviglia of Pizzi looks more like a square by De Chirico, with a bright white achromatic contrasted by the black of the musicians and gendarmes.
And then there is the symphony, Siviglia and its special barber, they need an ideal, imaginative place, everything is possible "Thanks above all to Rossini, benefactor of humanity." (1)
Bibliography: Alberto Zedda and Gianfranco Mariotti, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Rossini Opera Festival, 2018
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