| What: Rossini’s The Barber of Seville presented by Cape Town Opera When: August from 5-17, 2025 Where: Theatre on the Bay, Cape Town Bookings: Webtickets or Theatre on the Bay box office Director: Sylvaine Strike Design: Allegra Bernacchioni Lighting design: Josh Lindberg Musical direction and accompanied on piano: by CTO Head Vocal Coach Jan Hugo who takes on the role of Rossini – on stage Cast: William Berger/Thando Zwane (Figaro), Innocent Masuku/ Dumisa Masoka (Count Almaviva), Megan Kahts/Brittany Smith (Rosina). Other artists include Lonwabo Mose and Conroy Scott as Bartolo; Monde Masimini as Don Basilio; Garth Delport as Fiorello, Luvo Rasemeni as Ambrogio, Lusibalwethu Sesanti as Berta, and a male voice ensemble from the Cape Town Opera Chorus |
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞 – 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐞 𝐓𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚 𝐚𝐭 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐲 – 𝐀𝐮𝐠𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝟓-𝟏𝟕 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓.
Deliciously robust, invigorating and fun: Rossini’s The Barber of Seville – is a triumph. Cape Town Opera has dished up a joyful, hilarious and utterly captivating production. I don’t think that I have seen an audience enjoy an opera so much. This is a must see. Bravo to Cape Town Opera for this stunning production which is theatrically and vocally innovative and entertaining. The plot – well – two young people want to be united in matrimony: Rosina and the Count Almaviva, who is a Spanish nobleperson. Rosina’s guardian, the creepy and lewd, Dr Bartolo wants to marry her. A serious of interventions play out, with masses of deception, The primary protagonist, Figaro, the Barber of Seville ministers to their needs – which includes giving enemas, grooming and acting as an agent of romance All ends well – with love and faith – pushing through.
Director Sylvaine Strike has used a stop-frame animation style for her approach which heightens the wackiness and absurdity of the narrative. The performers are cartoon-like – with movement contained – shuttered – as if they are figures being activated by shutters of stop frame animation. It is theatrically thrilling – with hilarious physical theatre – elements of clown – but exquisitely precise.The shuttering also triggers voice, breath, gasp, emotion. It goes beyond heightening and stylising archetypes that Rossini was playing with in his opera. The characterisation is brilliant – as the performers dig deep theatrically, moving across the raked stage and using the walls and screens to prop them up and keep them in the frame.
Lighting design by Josh Lindberg amplifies and echoes the movement and bathes the set in the warm glow of Seville. The action takes place over a day. We see the sun rising at the start of the show and the light shifting over the day as the day progresses and ends with a storm. The light in the storm scene seems to be synched with the music, being struck out on the piano. I was intrigued by the use of light as paint, layering each scene with shifting tones of light and conjuring up the passage of time which is liminal in juxtaposition to the hard-edged cartoon manifestations of the figures. Lindberg and I chatted after the show and he that he true inspiration from “Renaissance painters working in areas like Seville, places in Italy, France, Spain” and “how they captured light in their paintings. This hazy light of those regions- warm soft tones. Look at a Raphael painting- the way light moves across the different colours and desaturating the colours so that they are not bright- rather natural and warm – or cold to say something else.”
Beautiful set and design by Allegra Bernacchioni – gorgeous costumes – lime green, shades of green, burnt umber, flashes of orange and red, florals and blocks of colour. Her raked stage and angular set provide space for the performers to play and for the light to ping off at angles. Lindberg reflected about the light in relation to the set and that he embraced the ”angles of her set and depth of the raked stage moving upwards and backwards and those two angles moving into a perspective depth in a small space …. ” He added: “We are lighting first and foremost the scene and the story and incredible performers and amazing voices- we colour that and work within that.” Orange is very much a character in this production – the orange in the costumes and fresh oranges on the stage. At points, the cast plays with the oranges – juggling in one scene – eating them – tossing them. It is all precisely calibrated within the stop-frame animation of organised chaos.
Jan Hugo is musical director and he accompanies the company on piano. He is on stage and takes on the role of Rossini – cueing in the performers. They look to him for affirmation and frequently interact with him – gesture – props. Rossini is another character in his own opera – the Maestro – which brings in a vital meta-text. He is frequently bemused at his creations and at one point, he gesticulates – “Basta” -Italian for “enough”. He is watching the organised chaos with glee and making sure it stays within each shuttered frame as the absurdity of the plot unspools.
The cast is a wow – vocally and theatrically. We saw the Red cast – includes Brittany Smith, Thando Zwane, Innocent Masuka and Conroy Scott – in beautiful voice – bel canto and acing the comedy as Rosina. There is a magic scene when she is dodges accusations of infidelity with the Doc, her guardian and she looks to the Maestro for guidance what to do with the accusations of her using the stationery – paper and pen.
I was concerned as the first act is one hour and 15 minutes and the 2nd act is 55 minutes but OhMy, this is a cracker of a production which had us enthralled and charmed. I was on the edge of my seat, captivated and immersed in the organised and delicious chaos.
✳ Featured image – L-R Thando Zwane (Figaro), Brittany Smith (Rosina), Innocent Masuku (Count Almaviva) in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, presented by Cape Town Opera, at Theatre on the Bay, Cape Town, August from 5-17, 2025. Pic: Kim Stevens. Supplied
