The Barber of Seville – Glyndebourne

Last Updated on June 16, 2026

A Razor-sharp Barber at Glorious Glyndebourne

5.0 out of 5.0 stars

Perfection is an elusive commodity. But tonight’s season-opening production of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville at Glyndebourne on a glorious early summer’s evening was just that. Annabel Arden’s 2016 production has returned for a revival. It received mixed notices at the time, which improved with a 2019 outing with revival director Sinéad O’Neill at the helm. This 2025 iteration seems to have hit the operatic sweet spot. A cast and band singing and playing their socks off and clearly having fun with a production that has found its feet.

Arden co-founded Complicité, the groundbreaking British theatre company with its trademark use of mime and physical theatre. In relation to the Barber, she has spoken of “taking inspiration from the Spanish tradition of the grotesque and the marvellous and making a synthesis of it.” The show opens with designer Joanna Parker’s cyan-coloured curtains framed by an irregularly shaped burnt orange proscenium arch. The message is clear: we are in Seville, but it is a fantasy Seville located in the director and designer’s imaginations.

Rossini’s two-act masterpiece, The Barber of Seville, was written in a hurry in 1816 and is one of those miraculous works that both transcends its time and defines its genre, Opera buffa, the lighthearted form of opera that achieved mass popularity in Italy in the early 1700s. The Barber of Seville is based upon Pierre Beaumarchais’s French play of the same name, with a previous and hugely successful operatic version composed by Giovanni Paisiello in 1782. Rossini had asked Paisiello’s permission to use the story, which was granted, but it didn’t stop the elder composer’s fans from disrupting the opera’s opening night.

The bare bones of the Commedia dell’Arte inspired plot fall into the pre-determined model. Rosina, the daughter of a Duke, is the ward of the aged Dr Bartolo, who tries to stop her from interacting with the outside world by keeping her cooped up in his house. Dr Bartolo has romantic designs on Rosina and plans to marry her for her sizeable dowry. Rosina falls for the handsome but penniless student Lindoro, who serenades her from the outside of Bartolo’s house. Lindoro is actually the aristocratic Count Almaviva, who wants Rosina to love him for himself rather than for his title or wealth. Almaviva enlists the help of Figaro who is the local barber and general fixer about town, to win Rosina’s hand from Bartolo. After two acts of unlikely shenanigans, the young lovers are united in marriage. As well as the gender politics that drive the plot, issues of class are similarly embedded in the story with aristocratic entitlement and bourgeois fiscal power inevitably colliding with the comedically cunning servant and service classes – in this instance a barber/fixer character, domestic servants, a band of musicians and a music teacher – who are delighted to fleece the more privileged characters of their gold.

Designer Joanna Parker’s interiors for this production of The Barber of Seville are covered with blue and white Moorish tiles covered with Matisse-like bird motifs. The set cleverly morphs from exteriors to interior scenes with balconies, windows, staircases and wardrobes emerging as necessary.

Mexican baritone Germán Olvera, fabulous last year as Danilo in Glyndebourne’s The Merry Widow, gives us a cool and self-confident Figaro, first popping up next to the orchestra pit before working his way up to the stage. He’s a sly operator taking every opportunity to ingratiate himself into the personal business of the wealthy for his own profit. Olvera‘s rich-toned baritone is perfect for the part, and he delivers the wily character’s patter in his signature aria ‘Largo al factotum’ with a knowing élan.

The two innamorati, Rosina and Count Almaviva (Lindoro), are played by a well-matched pair of debut artists, Italian mezzo-soprano Cecilia Molinari and American lyric tenor Jonah Hoskins. Molinari is sensational as the entitled ward, swooshing around in her Balenciaga-inspired dresses in a flamenco frenzy of repression. Her voice is a thing of wonder with a golden-hued lower register and a sparkling coloratura, all combined with a technique that makes Rossini’s hyper-ornamentations seem easy. Molinari is also a qualified surgeon and brings that level of precision to her vocal passion in her Act 1 aria ‘Una voce poco fa.’ Hoskins, in a slightly sleazy long silver coat, is no slouch either. He brings a classic bel canto flamboyance to the stage, eating up the romantic high notes whilst serenading his beloved in the Act 1 aria ‘Se il mio nome saper voi bramate.’

Italian baritone Fabio Capitanucci gave us an amusingly befuddled Dr Bartolo at The Royal Opera House in 2023. At Glyndebourne, his characterisation carries more threat and feels more controlling. When he sings ‘A un dottor della mia sorte’, the aria in which he lays down the law to his errant niece, we are inclined to take him more seriously.

Decked out in a Father Brown-esque black Cappello Romano hat and cassock, Italian bass Alessio Cacciamani brings a comedic lugubriosity to the character of the eminently corruptible music teacher Don Basilio. The slander aria ‘La calumnia è un venticello’ was delivered with verve but lacked the full force of its Rossinian crescendo. However, watching a priest self-combust was amusing.

Also reprising her role from The Royal Opera House production of The Barber of Seville is Irish soprano Ailish Tynan as Bartolo’s exasperated servant Berta, who brings the house down with her feature aria ‘Il vecchiotto cerca moglie’ and a knowing flash of her suspenders. A special mention must go to young British baritone Hector Bloggs stepping up from the Glyndebourne Chorus, who opens the show with his splendid Fiorello. One to watch.

Director Annabel Arden incorporates lots of physical gags into this production of The Barber of Seville, most of which come off. There is a recurring joke that features multiple harpsichords being delivered and then deconstructed in a surrealist montage. The three delivery men actors keep appearing in different guises and are all fine performers, but with their hyper-styled movements, are too often an unnecessary distraction from the main event.

Conductor Rory Macdonald brings drive and a pleasing comedic bounce to the LPO, who were impeccable throughout. The Glyndebourne Chorus, functioning as a comedy troupe of musicians, then as soldiers, made a mighty sound when roused and overall balances were well-controlled. There was some occasional rhythmic raggedness in the ensemble patter songs, but overall, this was a musically first-class production of The Barber of Seville

The Glyndebourne season continues until the end of August with a new production of Wagner’s Parsifal, Handel’s Saul, Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro (new production), Verdi‘s Falstaff and Janácek’s Kát’a Kabanová. If you have never been, then dust off your DJ and party frock and experience something truly magical.

The Barber of Seville runs from 16 May to 3 July

The Barber of Seville
Glyndebourne
Lewes
East Sussex
United Kingdom
BN8 5UU

All production photos © Glyndebourne Productions Ltd. Photo: Tristram Kenton

For more about the Summer Opera Season at Glyndebourne and elsewhere, check our feature on where to enjoy cultural London outdoors in 2025