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September 2009

“Theatre is a lunatic asylum, and the opera is a refuge for incurables.”—Gioacchino Rossini

Remember a few days ago when I told you that Rimrock Opera Company’s weekend production at the Alberta Bair Theatre (In Billings) of Rossini’s Barber of Seville would be good?  Well, I didn’t!  However, it was better than that: IT WAS MAGNIFICENT!

Chris Johnson was confidently excellent in the role of Figaro, the barber and general fixer of mythical Seville. That’s him below celebrating with the crowd after the show.

And farther below is Lisa Lombardy, also after the show signing autographs. She was simply splendid, singing better than ever, as the beautiful Rosina.

 I liked Sean Miller as Count Almaviva even though he was a tenor, and of course Robert Taylor as Dr Bartolo and Dennis Rupp as Basilio were funny and sang well too. I like it when the smaller parts, the saucy maids and housekeepers, and the ensemble people come up big too. They did, and we all enjoyed this show very much.

The orchestra, the best of the best from the BSO, has been doing this stuff for a long time, just the right size and very nimble. Great sounds as usual from the woodwinds and horns, sometimes a little loud, but we knew what they were singing anyway because of the projection above the stage.

There was some nice work on the harpsichord for the recitative stuff, but I didn’t see the name in the playbill unless it was one of the percussionists.

I wondered why, since it was sung in English, they put the words above the stage, in English too, of course. Well, I had forgotten about the rapid-fire multi-voice passages where it was nice to see who was singing what as the words were not that easy to hear when everyone is singing something different. They should have left the words up a little longer where they keep repeating themselves just for emphasis and because it sounds good. This was fun and wizardly as well.

Well done for the Wizard in Chief Doug Nagel for getting all these fine young voices and getting them to work together for a first class entertaining afternoon. I almost forgot to mention Loretta Jensen Wittmer for her excellent costumes. Way to go Loretta.

Don’t forget La Boheme the last weekend in April 2010. Don’t worry, there will be some reminders.