During rehearsals of Calgary Opera’s The Barber of Seville, Adam Lau managed to get a laugh from the cast and crew with an unscripted bit of comedy.
The Chinese-American bass, who is performing the role of scheming music teacher Don Basilio, offered an April Fool’s joke by pretending to bang his face on a door while entering the stage.
Slapstick, of course, has always been a part of Gioachino Rossini’s classic Italian comedy. Still, given the demands of the piece, one might assume there would be precious little time for shenanigans at the rehearsal stage. But that is part of a big misconception about opera and those who perform it. Of course, it’s serious work and the Barber of Seville, in particular, requires what the Calgary Opera website has described as “Olympic-level singing.”
That doesn’t mean rehearsals can’t be fun, says stage director Elizabeth Stepkowski Tarhan.
John Tessier (Count Almaviva) and chorus in Calgary Opera’s The Barber of Seville. Photos, William Hosier
“Opera is not deadly serious even when you are in rooms doing the deepest-darkest, there is still laughter in creation,” she says. “There is joy in creation, there is laughter in creation, there is incredible camaraderie in collaborations. Errors are always funny, no matter when you are doing them. When an error occurs, the rule in my rehearsal hall is that if you do it wrong three times, it’s a keeper and it’s our new line.”
Lau’s April Fool’s joke was more gag than mistake, so who knows if it will make it into the final production of Calgary Opera’s The Barber of Seville. Tarhan admits it’s not really a hard-and-fast rule, just another way of maintaining levity during rehearsals.
“Sometimes, when somebody does something wrong, it’s the way that they move to correct it that is funny,” she says. “So if you do it wrong three times — and I don’t always add it — but I request that they keep it. But sometimes they prefer to do it correctly.”
The Barber of Seville may be a classic comedy, and the rehearsals have a lot of laughs. Still, there is no denying the technical prowess required by performers to pull off the opera. It is generally regarded as one of the most demanding for singers and orchestras.
Calgary Opera’s The Barber of Seville with, front row, Adam Lau, John Tessier, Dion Mazerolle and Kelsey Ronn. Back row is Ryan Nauta, (hidden) Grisha Martirosyan and Siphozaki Molteno. Photos, William Hosier
You don’t have to be an opera buff to recognize its most famous pieces, particularly the opening aria Largo al Factotum with its “Figaro Figaro Figaro!” refrain.
The music is everywhere in pop culture, from the 1950 Bugs Bunny parody The Rabbit of Seville to its ingenious use in the 1993 Seinfeld episode The Barber. But that doesn’t mean it’s old hat to the performers on stage.
“This is an incredibly difficult thing,” says Tarhan. “The coloratura, the patter songs — it’s so fast. Rossini’s music is virtuosic for both the orchestra and the singer. The sinfonia that the orchestra plays at the beginning is so difficult. The music is extraordinary, and these singers need to be absolutely top-notch. It’s incredible.
“That’s part of the negotiations in rehearsal. As a stage director, I have a vision for the physicality and the pictures and things like that, and sometimes you just have to say, ‘At this point, let’s hand it over musically and say this is an extraordinarily difficult run for the next 30 seconds and maybe everybody just stand still.”
The Barber of Seville is a classic romp about Count Almaviva’s attempts to woo the young and determined Rosina with the help of his clever barber Figaro. She is sheltered by her stern guardian, Dr. Bartolo, who is aided by scheming music teacher Don Basilio. In fact, there is a lot of scheming in The Barber of Seville, which leans into the comedic hallmarks of the day — romantic mishaps, deception, elaborate disguises and mistaken identities — while slipping in deeper messages about true love and challenging European class structures.
“The story is well-known to everybody,” Tarhan says. “We’ve been telling this story for centuries. Our female heroine has been put in a position where her choice has been taken away, and the hero wants to restore that choice and prove his love. She is in love with the hero, and it’s all about thwarting the evil, mustachioed villain a la silent movies and comedy through the centuries.”
Tarhan is a Calgary-based artist who previously directed Stone Soup and the Witty Squirrel for the company. This is her first time directing The Barber of Seville. In fact, before rehearsals, she had never seen the production performed live. Like many, her introduction to it was Bugs Bunny.
Armenian baritone Grisha Martirosyan will make his Calgary Opera debut as Figaro, as will South African mezzo-soprano Siphokazi Molteno as Rosina, and Lau as Basilio.
The familiarity of the themes and music makes it the perfect gateway opera for the uninitiated, Tarhan says.
“If someone is coming and thinking, ‘I’ve never seen an opera, I have no idea,’ when that sinfonia, that overture, starts, everybody goes, ‘I know this,’” she says. “I think it’s so part of our culture and our pop culture, no matter how old you are, that you will have heard this music before. I think that’s comforting. For anybody who is wondering how their first experience with opera is going to be, I think that’s going to put them at ease.”
The Barber of Seville will be performed on April 18 and April 24 at 7:30 p.m. and April 19 at 2 p.m. at the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium.