On Friday night we had tickets to see "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" (The Barber of Seville) with Joyce DiDonato (who is a family friend) playing Rosina, Nathan Gunn singing Figaro, and John Osborn singing Count Almaviva. It was phenomenal and the cast sounded absolutely brilliant!
Count Almaviva was originally set to be sung by Juan Diego Florez, who had to cancel because of a throat infection. He was replaced by John Osborn. Not that JDF isn't a wonderful singer, but my personal opinion is that no one was missing anything. In fact, I thought that John was a MUCH better Almaviva than JDF would have been. His voice is just better for that role. He even sang the 10 minute long "Cessa di piu resistere" which is usually left out, and he did it extremely well while making it look incredibly effortless. Just wow!
Nathan Gunn sang Figaro and was also phenomenal. That man is freaking built, too! He opened with his "Largo al factotum della citta" aria and it was fantastic. He started out with a reverse strip tease, waking up with only his underwear and dressing as he sang. Thank the gods of beautiful almost-naked men for that! It was worth the cost of tickets solely for that one scene of Nathan Gunn half naked! He was a hysterical Figaro, and really played up the comedy of the role. I could listen to the man sing forever and not get tired of hearing him, too.
Joyce DiDonato sang Rosina and was absolutely brilliant. There just isn't enough praise that I can give for her performance. Joyce is also a family friend. Back when she was just getting started she was in the Merola program with the San Francisco Opera and was sponsored by Russ' aunt and uncle. They have kept in touch ever since and remained extremely close friends and Joyce has included everyone else in the family in that friendship as well. I was so excited to finally get to see her perform live! She was even more amazing than any of the YouTube clips could have ever indicated!
We had been invited to visit backstage after the show by Joyce, and when we went back to meet up with her, we got a chance to meet and visit with the rest of the cast. They were absolutely wonderful and completely down to earth, despite all of them being considerably famous within the opera and recording world. It was just fantastic. All of them doted on Quin and couldn't get enough of her. Both John Osborn and Nathan Gunn have kids of their own, so they were very at ease with her and really went out of their way to cajole her from being shy. (Then again, it WAS 11pm and 2 hours past Quin's bed time and she had just woken up from about a 45 minute "nap" and she is always shy when she is tired) Joyce was also fantastic with Quin and posed for pictures and really got Quin to open up and joke around with her. Quin has a new friend and has been talking about the whole cast non-stop since Friday night!
Admittedly, I already enjoyed opera, so someone who isn't into opera might not have enjoyed any of this as much as I did. But, Barber is really a great opera to see if one hasn't been to an opera before. It is a two act comedy, and with the right cast, is absolutely hysterical. Luckily, we had a cast who played the comedy wonderfully.
The pics are Quin and Joyce DiDonato.
Take care,
Cindi
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