Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia

Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia is the perfect Italian comic opera – fast, fizzy and very, very funny, with a heart as warm as the Spanish sun. But Beaumarchais, the play's original author, was French, and in 2017 director Laurent Pelly brought the Barber back to its roots at Paris's Théâtre des Champs-Élysées with a staging that combined a spirited period-instrument orchestra with an unmistakably Gallic sensibility. The result sparkles like champagne, with Jérémie Rhorer conducting and a cast (headed by Florian Sempey, with Catherine Trottman as a vivacious Rosina) that's as delightful to watch as it is to hear.