Il Barbiere di Siviglia
G. Rossini

Set & costumes........Christof Cremer
Light design........Klaus Bröck
Conductor........Roland Kluttig

première: 1 July2011 Coburg, Germany
compamy: Landestheater Coburg

Reviews

Magic of a perfect evening
This full stop is really an exclamation mark. The last opera of the season proves what the Opera of Coburg is artistically capable of. Christof Cremer has radically emptied the stage and transformed the walls of the theatre into a cloudy sky-scape. Centrepiece of both acts is an enormous golden cage. Brilliant: Figaros ambulant barber shop. Cremer has transformed the stage into a playpen with costumes that typify the characters with great imagination in the style of Commedia dell’Arte. Director Carlos Wagner effortlessly interprets Rossini’s Opera in the same spirit. He succeeds in translating the lively movements of the music into action on stage. Precise direction and a demanding body language create contagious joy in the acting. The decisive method is consistently stylised gestures that harmonize perfectly with the witty set design. The applause of the audience was as enthusiastic as it was generous.

Coburger Tagblatt

Yoga in a golden cage
If the next season in the opera of Coburg begins how it ended, then the audience can look forward to more first-class evenings at the theatre. A sold out house quaked with the ovation of the spectators to Rossini’s “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” in the acclaimed staging by Carlos Wagner, a worthy end for the first season of new intendant Bodo Busse. From where director Carlos Wagner and designer Christof Cremer drew their inspiration with intelligence and a lot of creative force is clear: Unmistakeably it is Commedia dell’Arte which is the progenitor of this made-up, masked and motley cast, that could easily compete with Pantalone, Dottore and Arlecchino. But they did not only correspond optically, they also acted in style, with large gestures and exaggerated body language they created hellish fun that caused much laughter in the audience. The action never came to a halt, Rossini would have rejoiced in this entertaining and imaginative, subversively hilarious staging, which was celebrated extensively by the audience in Coburg on Saturday evening.

Neue Presse