[Met Performance] CID:2280



Il Barbiere di Siviglia
Metropolitan Opera House, Mon, March 24, 1884




Il Barbiere di Siviglia (8)
Gioachino Rossini | Cesare Sterbini
Figaro
Giuseppe Del Puente

Rosina
Marcella Sembrich

Count Almaviva
Victor Capoul

Dr. Bartolo
Baldassare Corsini

Don Basilio
Giovanni Mirabella

Berta
Emily Lablache

Fiorello
Ludovico Contini

Sergeant
Amadeo Grazzi


Conductor
Auguste Vianesi





In the Lesson Scene Marcella Sembrich sang the Shadow Song from Dinorah.

Review 1:

Review in The New York Times:

The weight of Sig. Stagno's lugubriousness, which oppressed the performances of Rossini's masterpiece last season, was lifted last night by the casting of M. Capoul for the part of Almaviva, and "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" was given with better spirit in the action than any performance that had been seen here for a long time. It is hardly necessary to say that the substitution did not supply the musical element which was wanting then, for M. Capoul with his best endeavors cannot give satisfaction to anyone desirous of hearing, in all its beauty, the music with which Rossini embroidered the rôle of the lovesick Count. Indeed, if the truth were told, it would have to be confessed that the music of Almaviva has not been sung in New York for a very long time. Lyric tenors of the kind demanded by "The Barber" are rare and, under the influence of the revolution through which even Italian opera is passing now, they are daily becoming rarer. The nearest approach to a real performance of the music of the part which we have heard for some time was that of Signor Ravilli at the Academy of Music two years ago; yet even that was inelastic and constrained, and failed of some of its merited effect because of the absence of every conception of comedy from the histrionic constitution of the tenor. Under all the circumstances M. Capoul's Count was entertaining for, though he gave most of the music in an almost inaudible half voice, he had a complete appreciation of the humorous essence of the character and was both graceful and sprightly in his acting.

Against the rest of the cast a chronic fault-finder could scarcely have raised objection. Mme. Sembrich was in her element and tossed off the highly ornamented music with marvelous ease, brilliancy and spirit, and filed her part of the play with a hundred little coquetries and archnesses which kept the faces of her spectators beaming with pleased smiles. She reveled in the opportunity brought by the music lesson scene and kept the audience in such a stage of excited delight that in spite of the piquancy of the old comedy there was no desire that its thread should be resumed. Signor Del Puente was the nimble-tongued, light-footed Barber of old, and Signor Corsini the Bartolo, against whose account many aching aides are charged. Mme. Lablache appearing as Berta, her music received justice, and Signor Mirabella was appropriately abysmal and unwieldy as Basilio. The most serious obstacle in the way of a perfect performance of the opera was the overpowering loudness of the orchestra.



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