To Longborough Festival Opera again, this time for Rossini’s
The Barber of Seville, together with
daughters Kate and Dora, granddaughter Isobel, and wife Sophie Wilson.
Longborough is a country house opera, built into a large
converted barn-‒ a
less polished version of the Glyndebourne experience – and none the worse for
that. They have created an outstanding reputation in a few years for musical
excellence, not least managing to find and employ fine young singers.
Perhaps the standout among these is the soprano Rachel
Nicholls, who had a good reputation as a singer of Baroque music, but who has
been transformed by Longborough’s Musical Director, Anthony Negus, into one of
the leading Wagnerian sopranos of our time. She was an outstanding BrΓΌnnhilde in the Ring Cycle there last year, and this
season sang Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder
superbly, an enticing sample of what we may expect next year, when she will
sing Isolde for the first time.
The Barber turned out to be a good choice for eleven year
old Isobel’s first visit to an opera house (last year she sang in Britten’s The Little Sweep). And it was second time for twelve year old Dora.
In a lively, witty, well-acted and sung performance, both girls picked the
Figaro of Grant Doyle as their favourite.
My own pick was the brilliant coloratura and subtle acting
of mezzo-soprano Helen Sherman (above) as Rosina. Both Doyle and Sherman are
Aussies, continuing the great tradition of outstanding singers from that
country ‒ from
Nellie Melba to Joan Sutherland and onward.
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