Il Barbiere di Siviglia – Deutsche Oper Berlin – Juan de Dios Mateos
31st December, 2023. Editorial Staff
Rossini’s classic The Barber of Seville has revived its 2009 production with a truly fantastic cast. I’ve seen a lot of Barber’s over the years but I have to say I think this production from Katharina Thalbach is amongst the best.
[…]The rest of the cast are equally as brilliant, and all were not only fantastic singers but brilliant actors too. Juan de Dios Mateos as Count Almaviva brought a youthful energy but mature depth to his role, he has a very strong career ahead of him which I’m excited to see, I particularly loved his performance in the final part of Act 1, he has spot-on comic timing whilst singing wonderfully too. Cecilia Molinari was brilliant as Rosina, her Una voce poco fa was sublime and her voice and technique were assured enough throughout to give exciting ornamentation whilst not losing sight of the basics. Misha Kiria as Bartolo and Patrick Guetti as Basilio gave strong and assured performances, both very funny whilst also making the ridiculous seem plausible. Flurina Stucki as Berta gave a wonderful performance of Il Vecchietto Cerca Moglie and Kyle Miller as Fiorillo set the scene for the whole opera, with a fantastic voice and funny interactions with the chorus and Almaviva.