The Barber of Seville: at The Bruce Mason Centre

By WILLIAM DART

NBR New Zealand Opera promised us a fast, fun and razor-sharp Barber of Seville and we weren't disappointed. The company's portmanteau production of this classic opera buffa was all this and more.

Director Carmel Carroll put us out to sea for this version, cruising on the SS Siviglia, with Count Almaviva serenading Rosina, accompanied by a motley sailor band. Benjamin Fifita Makisi's comic timing was impeccable, his tenor sweet and clear. Our musical appetite had been whetted.

That the concept worked so well owed much to John Parker's set, looking like a zillion lire, but perfectly capable of being dismantled and transported by the singers after performance. When the action moved indoors, a row of chandeliers and a mirror did the trick.

The Barber of Seville is all about trickery; the opera offered 2 1/2 hours of duping and subterfuge. Andrew Conley's Figaro was the kingpin of it all, debonair and willowy, part Kevin Kline part John Cleese. With his light, agile voice putting the sparkle in Rossini's lines, Conley proved himself a born comic who can do as much with a shudder and furrowed brow as with a well-pointed recitative.

Andrea Creighton was a vocally agile Rosina, with a prodigious ability to delivery killer trills. She had fun plotting alongside her stage companions and conveyed it well, although her Una voce poco fa could have been more capricious.

And was I alone in finding Richard Green's Dr Bartolo a mite too handsome for the role and lacking some of the vocal flexibility that Rossini demands?

In smaller parts, Mark Rosser's Fiorello launched the opera with style and Susan Boland was a memorably blowsy Berta although she should have opted for a less flamboyant ending in her aria, Il vecchiotto cerca moglie.

Geoffrey Hughes, the production's Basilio, had lost his voice, and played the role on stage, while a resonant Grant Dickson sang from the orchestra pit. It was a masterly display of synchronisation and shared duties.

Although one could sense a certain tension in some of the ensemble work, Michael Vinten provided able musical direction, playing his own continuo for the fast-moving recitatives. His pared-down scoring of the opera was skilful, and would have been more effective had the violins been sweeter in tone.

All in all, a lively production that deserves support when it crosses over the harbour tomorrow for a five-night season.