I went to the Friday night performance of Kansas City Lyric Opera's production of The Barber of Seville. It was like a three hour Looney Tunes. But with pretty amazing singing. I think. I mean, there was so much going on at any given moment during this production, I rarely had a moment to consider the music. Especially that moment when the whole audience gasped as everyone collectively feared for a couple of seconds that the whole front wall of Dr. Bartolo's house was going to fall flat and squash Almaviva. Things got better after that, because the whole wall went away, once the scenes shifted to the interior of the house, and that wobbly wall never came back. The set was much more interesting and attractive at that point. Its quirky angles and color added to the cartoon feel as it felt like a background from Bugs Bunny's What's Opera, Doc? It did look at it's best when the lights were lowered. The seams and rough edges weren't as apparent then. But again, that wasn't as big of a distraction as all the "business" the director had all the performers trying to cram into each scene. I'm all about making music entertaining, but this was hammy to the nth degree.
Now, I admit, I was most definitely in the minority in my opinion here. The audience Friday night ate it all up. And the singers were pretty amazing, singing with surprising ease and style in spite of all the shenanigans going on. But in the end, for me this production was catapulted way, way over the top.
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