If you are an extremist who detests wacky opera productions, then do not go to see Scottish Opera’s new version of Rossini’s Italian Girl in Algiers, a co-production with New Zealand Opera, which opened in Glasgow on Wednesday night. In fact, stay at home for safety.
If, on the other hand, you have an open mind and a sense of humour; or if, indeed, you’re not much interested in opera at all, but like a colourful and entertaining night out, then give this a shot.
It is outrageous, ingenious, funny and downright mental. It is well-played by a sparkling troupe of singers, with the orchestral playing light on its feet, but marred only some poor synchronisation between pit and stage.
This is an opera production for the digital age with multiple layers operating at once. Somewhere in the mix is Rossini’s opera, though the purists will consider it lost.
Director Colin McColl slams the production up to date and sets it as a soap opera called Algiers. The singers play not only their operatic roles, but also the characters in the soap and the actors in the soap. Left of stage is a TV production team, laptops and all, who spend most of the night going nuts at the upstaging and camera-hogging.
Onstage there are scantily-clad beach babes and the entire Italian football squad. Confusing? That’s not the half of it. The whole show, onstage and off, is projected with all the digital televisual trickery in the book on to a huge screen above stage.
The cast is fabulous, with Karen Cargill, Tiziano Bracci and Thomas Walker in particular pelting full-on into the spirit of the show. Och; just go and see it. Have some fun.
The Italian Girl in Algiers
Theatre Royal, Glasgow
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