Music Review: Joshua Hopkins delivers a Figaro for the books despite personal tragedy

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Barber of Seville review
At Southam Hall
Reviewed Saturday night

Opera singers are commonly asked to tap into personal experience and emotion to produce a more convincing portrayal of their character. But in the title role of Opera Lyra’s Barber of Seville, Joshua Hopkins has created a triumph doing exactly the opposite.

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Hopkins’ sister, Natalie Warmerdam, was one of three women slain in Wilno last week. But the young baritone was able to set aside this shattering tragedy to deliver a Figaro for the books: endearing, vivacious and vocally impeccable.

From his first entry − on a barber stripe-painted scooter − Hopkins performed with inspired commitment and open-hearted generosity. His seductive baritone is warm and silky, agile but with enough weight and power to slice through a thick ensemble. Some singers turn Figaro into a bit of a buffoon. Hopkins’ gave us the barber’s preening bombast, but also his craftiness, his wit, and his cheeky hustle.

Marion Newman was a charming, coy, lively Rosina, all flashing dark eyes and mobile, expressive mouth. Her distinctinve mezzo is more tart than sweet, with a slightly nasal, not unpleasant wooliness in her middle range. The voice is perhaps a little heavy for this role, but we’ve become used to hearing Rosina sung by young lyric-coloratura sopranos. If Newman lacks extreme high extension and fire-breathing speed, she makes up for it with rich colour, effortless long phrasing, and judicious musicality.

Young Ottawa tenor Isaiah Bell has an elegant, coolly aristocratic high tenor, with finely articulated fioritura. But he applied that gleaming voice inconsistenetly: too often his pitch was off, or he had to chop up Rossini’s phrases with extra breaths, or his high notes sounded tight, thin and unsupported. All three issues were particularly evident in first aria, the beastly Ecco ridente le stelle; possibly his vocal problems were due to opening night nerves. Still, Bell was game for all the shenanigans on stage, finding just the right tone between youthful exuberance and ruling class reserve.

High praise is owed to baritone Peter McGilivray for his virtuoso performance as Bartolo. McGillivray channelled Daffy Duck’s spluttering rages, but for all of his physical comedy and over-the-top bluster the role never got away from him vocally.

Victoria, B.C. conductor Giuseppe Pietraroia lit a hot Mediterranean fire under the singers and the NAC Orchestra. This wasn’t precious Rossini, but vigorous and red-blooded, with real swagger and unflagging energy. The orchestra’s horns have been plagued by split notes lately, but that wasn’t the case Saturday night; everything was precise, confident, and neat as a pin. The long crescendo in Basilio’s La Calumnia aria was especially brilliantly shaped.

Director Dennis Garnhum has set the action in a 1940s Spanish film studio. The premise is original but tries too hard, and ultimately doesn’t hold water. Why bother choosing that era and that country without even alluding to Franco or the war? Rosina is supposed to be a spirited but virtuous and proper young noblewoman; turning her into a sexy movie star who spends a lot of time flouncing around in her underwear is too much of a stretch. However, the security guard who walked on during the overture nonchalantly munching a carrot −a wink to that wascally wabbit − was a clever touch.

The set looks more like a prison than a movie studio, with dreary faux concrete, corrugated steel, high barred windows, and too many dark nooks and alcoves. The space is crammed to bursting with props; It’s not only distracting visually, it creates dead zones for the voices, and forces everyone into a narrow strip of real estate at the front.

Opera Lyra said it was pleased with ticket sales for opening night, which it claimed were around 75 per cent. Although there were empty seats, the company’s new updated marketing efforts seem to be paying off. The audience was noticeably younger than in previous seasons, with glittering gaggles of Ottawa fashionistas and their dates dressed up for an evening out. Whether any were there for the music, or will return regularly, is less certain: I overheard more than one exclaiming how glamorous they felt going to The Marriage of Figaro.