Some notes on Hey Figaro! (The Barber of Seville) on Monday:


During the Overture I kept thinking of The Rabbit of Seville.

They used a harpsichord. Whee.

On the whole, moving the action to modern times worked. Seeing SAISALs (Shrill, Anorexic, Italian-Speaking Ah Lians) gushing over Elvis was hilarious. Some parts were weird, though, like seeing the ensemble pretending to play music in a band (complete with drum set) but with classical music coming from the orchestra pit.

It was really an opera buffa, with the First Act ending with the line "Who knows what will happen next? See you after the intermission to find out".

Thanks to the surtitles, I didn't fall asleep like I did during La Boheme in London, since I knew what was going on. Unfortunately there wasn't enough space to display what was being sung all the time, so many parts were untranslated or shortened. If they'd dispensed with the Chinese surtitles they could've squeezed more in but this is impractical so maybe they can use bigger screens next time. I took some issues with the translation, though. Some bits could be excused or even welcomed as part of artistic license (not least because Italian doesn't always translate well), like "Baby, be my lover tonight" and "You're grounded". However, one bit talked about the singer's head feeling like pneumatic drills pounding the road, but the jackhammer was invented almost 6 decades after the premiere of the opera.

The Recitative/Aria/Chorus distinction was quite annoying. In an oratorio it at least makes more sense, but when you have recitative people are singing for the sake of singing even if there's no tune. It's no wonder they moved to "endless melody" later, though moving to spoken speech works too.

I was puzzled by the "Now Playing" sign that lit up, seemingly at random, throughout the opera. At first I thought it lit up to signify that the recitative parts had moved into the aria, duet and chorus bits, but this wasn't always the case.

Figaro was good, and all the singers were quite clear (thank the gods) except for Rosina, whose voice was over-heavy with the characteristic chicken stuffed down her throat (I was wondering why the Count and Doctor Bartolo were fighting over such an old woman). Maybe it's only Chinese soloists who do this (I have insufficient data on this).