‘Barber of Seville’ makes the cut

New York’s Metropolitan Opera will live-stream Gioachino Rossini’s effervescent comedy, “Il Barbiere di Siviglia,” to the Newport Performing Arts Center this Saturday, May 31. This will be the final presentation of the Met’s current “Live in HD” season, allowing Oregon Coast audiences the opportunity to watch the performance take place in real-time from nearly 3,000 miles away. 

Rossini’s playful masterpiece retakes the stage in a madcap production from Bartlett Sher, conducted by Giacomo Sagripanti. Star mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina headlines a winning ensemble as the feisty heroine Rosina, alongside high-flying tenor Jack Swanson, in his Met debut, as her secret beloved, Count Almaviva. Baritone Andrey Zhilikhovsky stars as Figaro, the inimitable barber of Seville. Bass-baritone Peter Kálmán as Dr. Bartolo and bass Alexander Vinogradov as Don Basilio round out the principal cast.

Premiering in Rome in 1816, Rossini’s perfectly honed treasure survived a famously disastrous opening night, caused by factions and local politics more than any reaction to the work itself, to become what may be the world’s most popular comic opera.

The score features solos of astounding speed in comic, tongue-twisting forms, especially the title role’s well-known Act I showstopper, “Largo al factotum.” Several of the opera’s most recognizable tunes have entered the world’s musical subconscious, most notably the introductory song of the swaggering Figaro, the titular barber of Seville.

Saturday’s opera, sung in Italian with English subtitles, begins at 10 am and runs for 3 hours and 10 minutes with two intermissions. Tickets range from $12 to $28. The Newport Performing Arts Center is located at 777 W Olive Street. For more information, go to coastarts.org or call 541-265-2787.