Like a Forge of Fire – Nicola Hümpel stages “The Barber of Seville” at the Hanover State Opera

1816, the year of the premiere of Gioachino Rossini's "The Barber of Seville," was by no means a comfortable year, even in Rome. The Napoleonic wars were over, and the longing for peace and quiet was mingled with the censorious Restoration. Michael Talke offered a performance in Bremen four years ago in which he showed people in an unprecedented egoism and at the same time gave free rein to absurdity and comedy. Entrusting this piece to a woman who deals a lot with music in her award-winning performances and installations was a good idea on the part of the Hanover State Opera. For Nicola Hümpel, founder of the group "Nico and the Navigators", which has been successful for twenty years, avoids any attempt to be theoretical in her work, which received standing ovations. This may be regretted, but it sets up situations that are themselves very clear. The scenes are filmed and shown at the same time in huge enlargement of the faces above all. But what at first seems like a not particularly imaginative acting chamber play changes in the course of the performance to an ever increasing complexity of meanings. For the images in the background intertwine with the action in the foreground: when, for example, poor Rosina blurts out her rage against Bartolo in front of his outsize - a very small woman against a giant - suddenly a shattering image. Or when, in a sextet in the background, only Figaro and Almaviva can be seen as thread-pullers. And then suddenly images appear that very well tell of the loneliness of people, such as the thunderstorm music. It plays in front of rotating abstract forms and landscapes (stage by Oliver Proske), the people literally tumble in it: their "brain as a volcanic eruption" or "like a fire forge", as it says in the text. Or also a wonderful hopeful image: an incredible wind blows everyone into another, hopefully better time. That it all works so well is of course also and especially due to the musical performance: once you can see everything from the singing, the tongue, the saliva, the lower jaw, the dental fillings, but all the singers also offer excellent psychological studies in facial expressions. Nina van Essen, Sunnyboy Dladla and Hubert Zapiór are new in the ensemble: van Essen as Rosina is an ideal casting, Dladla as Almaviva offers throughout enchanting and infinitely funny lust for life and Zapiór as Figaro romps through the scene with an always also ironic - he has his likeness tattooed on his upper arm and sometimes kisses it - self-confidence and a ravishing singing. Frank Schneiders as Bartolo draws a sensitive uncertainty of life, Daniel Miroslaw as Basilio and Carmen Fuggiss as Berta complete the trio excellently. Everything is subject to the supple sovereignty of Eduardo Strausser's musical direction: he emphasizes all details with the State Orchestra, so that a brilliant accuracy is accompanied by an almost intoxicating lust for life. It didn't take a minute for the audience to stand.

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