Music
L'occasione fa il ladro
Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow
Kelvin Holdsworth
three stars
A MIX-UP over baggage in an airport departure lounge is the theatrical business which gets this production by Raucous Rossini underway. The production is a bit of a mixed bag too. As a showcase for some fine young singers, it works admirably. As a coherent night out at the opera, it feels a bit less secure.
This is a clever comedy of mistaken identity but most of the laughs here came from simple slap-stick. Without the safety net of surtitles, an hour and a half of people muddling themselves up over who they are in Italian is a big ask of a Glasgow audience. A few chairs by way of a set and three scrawled notes on a music stand were all the clues we had to tell us where we were. With a complex synopsis printed in black lettering on brown paper in tiny print – and no interval in which to catch up – it was not always clear what was going on.
However, the singing was very good with a strong cast. Barbara Cole Walton in particular glistened from the stage as Berenice. This wasn’t a one person show though and the talents of all shone through, particularly in the beautifully balanced ensemble singing.
In the pit things were not always confident. Max Fane conducted from the harpsichord and provided perky continuo playing which perfectly complemented the singers. However, intonation problems bedevilled the orchestra throughout, particularly among the string players.
Indeed, when this show soon tours to Italy, it would not be unfortunate if there was a mix-up over the baggage in the airport and a couple of violins went missing along the way.
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