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The Barber of Seville is a very funny opera that provides ample opportunity for slapstick humour and the classic amusing confusion caused by disguise and pretence. With a contemporary lens, the gender dynamics in this story are very questionable. Dr Bartolo (Andrew Moran) exerts a form of coercive control over his ward, Rosina (Helen Sherman), but she is not cast as a victim or a wallflower.
In the 11 years between Nabucco (1842) and La traviata (1853), Verdi wrote 15 operas. By the time of Traviata he was 40 years old and near the height of his fame as a composer. Amazing as it might seem though, Verdi could look forward to four more decades of professional activity. But compared to the prolific decade or so previously, the results were somewhat meagre. After La traviata, just eight original operas appeared. So, what stemmed the Verdian flow?
Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello and Falstaff are operas that might never have been. That they and Verdi’s revised version of Simon Boccanegra exist is thanks in large part to Arrigo Boito, a poet and composer nearly thirty years Verdi’s junior. Unusual among Verdi’s librettists, Boito was a major creative figure in his own right, who coaxed and cajoled the master out of retirement.
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