Rossini: Il Barbiere di Siviglia

I suppose if you wanted to put on Aida or another grand opera, the Arena di Verona would do nicely, however the Barber of Seville suffers somewhat from being staged in such an enormous venue. The singers sometimes seem a little lost in this huge space.

Thirty years after Leo Nucci sang Barber at the Met, alongside Kathleen Battle and Rockwell Blake, he's singing it here. The crowd loves him--rapturous applause after Largo al Factotum makes him repeat it, something I have never seen before in an opera broadcast. If Nucci's voice sounds a bit leathery now, he has bags of charm and charisma to make up for that. Nino Machaidze delivers a very pert and funny Rosina, and Dimitry Korchak is a capable Almaviva.