Figaro, the title character in Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville,” is the go to guy for tonsorial needs in Seville. Or romantic tribulations. After many shenanigans including impersonations and close “shaves” with disaster, Figaro manages to get the couple at the center of story, Count Almaviva and Rosina, married. Opera Santa Barbara’s fine production provided some twists to make this popular early 19th Century buffa even more enjoyable. The first thing one noticed was the fantastical set, a lovely art-deco-science-fiction mashup, vividly lit with saturated colors. Set in an updated period (judging by the costumes), you knew things were going to be a little sillier than usual when the bumbling “orchestra” Almaviva (disguised as a servant) hires to serenade his intended love includes a tuba. Figaro saves the day as he produces a guitar which drops form the heavens at his command, hands it to the Count, who wins Rosina’s heart singing solo. At Figaro’s suggestion, Almaviva goes on to pretend he’s a drunken soldier and, in a novel stroke, a cross dressing vocal teacher for the famous music lesson scene. Rosina’s lecherous old guardian Dr. Bartolo and the effete and whacky Basilio, her real teacher, are outsmarted again and again by the resourceful Figaro, but only barely, until the climax when he threatens to shoot Basilio unless he signs as a witness to the couple’s marriage certificate, putting an end to Bartolo’s hopes to marry his young charge and bring this very entertaining production to a close.
