Among the many reasons “The Barber of Seville” opera is hugely popular worldwide, here are three: Its music is instantly familiar, thanks to its usage in the 1950 Bugs Bunny cartoon “Rabbit of Seville.” Its story is so accessible, it’s among the best operas for introducing first-timers to the art form. And, last but not least, it’s funny.
Chuck Hudson, the director for San Diego Opera’s “Barber of Seville” production running Friday through next Sunday at the San Diego Civic Theatre, knows a lot about funny.
Chuck Hudson directs San Diego Opera’s production of “The Barber of Seville,” running Feb. 13-15 at the San Diego Civic Theatre. (Morgan Lee / Blue Photo)
Besides being a prolific director of theater and operas both comedic and dramatic, he’s an expert in Commedia dell’Arte movement and he is one of only three Americans to have received a diploma from the Marcel Marceau International School of Mimedrama in Paris.
But even with all that training and directing, Hudson says creating comedy is hard work.
“A lot of opera singers have a really difficult time with comedy because they’re not trained to do things comically,” said Hudson.
So, as a rule, every time he directs an opera like Gioachino Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville,” he brings all the performers (singers and non-singers) together in the same room to teach them a common language of style and movement.
“That way the ensemble in comedy have a relationship from the beginning. We’re all speaking the same language,” he said.
Mezzo-soprano Stephanie Doche plays Rosina in San Diego Opera’s production of “The Barber of Seville,” running Feb. 13-15 at the San Diego Civic Theatre. (Rafael Clemente)
For this production, Hudson is teaching the actors Italian Commedia del’Arte movement, which was the style of performance popular the theater when “The Barber of Seville” premiered in Rome in 1816. He said it isn’t slapstick, burlesque or vaudeville. It’s more like the precise physical craft of actors like Marceau and Charlie Chaplin.
“Slapstick doesn’t work stylistically for me,” he said. “Rossini is called the champagne of music. It’s light, poppy, it has verve and it’s delicious. Slapstick is funny but it’s not champagne. It’s beer. It doesn’t take a lot to laugh at that.”
Tenor Minghao Liu plays Count Almaviva in San Diego Opera’s production of “The Barber of Seville,” running Feb. 13-15 at the San Diego Civic Theatre. (San Diego Opera)
Hudson, who makes his home in St. Petersburg, Fla., said authenticity is also an important part of any style of live storytelling.
“Telling the story creatively doesn’t have to be real if we’re not doing realism. It doesn’t need to be natural if we’re not doing naturalism. But it needs to be truthful,” he said.
Hudson said he came to opera through acting, starting out as a supernumerary (a non-speaking background role) with the Houston outdoor Shakespeare festival and later with Houston Grand Opera. Because he’d been a competitive gymnast before becoming an actor, he used those physical skills to perform a backflip off a table next to a soprano singing an aria in one of his first productions.
Baritone Dean Murphy plays Figaro in San Diego Opera’s production of “The Barber of Seville,” running Feb. 13-15 at the San Diego Civic Theatre. (San Diego Opera)
“The Barber of Seville” opera was based on a 1775 play of the same name by French satirist Pierre Beaumarchais. It’s the story of Rosina, the beautiful and orphaned ward of the greedy Spanish Doctor Bartolo. He keeps her under lock and key and plans to marry Rosina himself in order to get his hands on her inheritance.
But Rosina has also caught the eye of the wealthy bachelor Count Almaviva, who disguises himself as a poor student to serenade Rosina from the street outside Bartolo’s home in Seville. The opera is named for Figaro, the wily jack-of-all-trades (including barbering skills) who Almaviva enlists to help arrange Rosina’s escape from Bartolo’s home so they can marry.
Hudson said the “Barber” story is an old one, perhaps inspired by the mythic legend of a hero rescuing maiden from a dragon, but in this case in a comedic way. He said the key figure in his production of “The Barber of Seville” isn’t the hero Almaviva, but the maiden Rosina.
Bass-baritone Patrick Carfizzi plays Doctor Bartolo in San Diego Opera’s production of “The Barber of Seville,” running Feb. 13-15 at the San Diego Civic Theatre. (Rafael Clemente)
“This Rosina is an incredibly intelligent woman,” he said. “Rosina is a woman trapped by these men who are using her as an economic pawn. That was the reality of that time period. This is a comedy, not a drama. How will we see this woman overcome this sitution with her smarts?”
Rosina will be played in the San Diego Opera production by mezzo-soprano Stephanie Doche, who played Suzuki in the company’s 2024 production of “Madama Butterfly.”
Co-starring in the production are tenor Minghao Liu as Count Almaviva and baritone Dean Murphy as Figaro, who are both making their company debuts.
Bass-baritone Patrick Carfizzi, a regular performer at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, will star as Dr. Bartolo. He played the same role for San Diego Opera in 2021 when the company produced a drive-in adaptation of “Barber” in the Pechanga Arena parking lot during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hudson said he enjoys working with Carfizzi, who he directed in the role of Leporello in Mozart’s opera “Don Giovanni.” “Patrick is an incredibly talented improvising actor.”
Bass-baritone Craig Colclough plays Don Basilio in San Diego Opera’s production of “The Barber of Seville,” running Feb. 13-15 at the San Diego Civic Theatre. (San Diego Opera)
He’s also looking forward to reuniting with Craig Colclough, the bass-baritone who plays Don Basilio, the music teacher who’s in on Bartolo’s marriage scheme.
“Craig and I have done several things He created the ‘Don Pasquale’ I did at Arizona Opera and it’s had nine different productions. We also created a ‘Falstaff’ together and we’ve done it twice,” Hudson said.
The production design for San Diego Opera’s “Barber” will feature new scenery, as well as costumes that were created for a 2025 production of “Barber” that Hudson directed at Minnesota Opera.
Since “The Barber of Seville” is being presented over Valentine’s Day weekend, San Diego Opera is offering a Valentine’s special. For $22, guests can order two glasses of Prosecco and chocolate-covered strawberries for two. It can be pre-ordered in advance at tickets.sdopera.org/3162/3163.
‘The Barber of Seville’
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. next Sunday
Where: San Diego Opera at the San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Ave., downtown
Tickets: $53 to $275
Phone: 619-232-7636
Online: sdopera.org