San Francisco Classical Voice

In fact, much of this score sounds like Donizetti, with its many flurries of flute, repetitive orchestral strum, and Italianate structure. No surprise, for the Spanish Barbieri began his career composing Italian opera, later transferring those musical ideas to zarzuela and, in doing so, he is credited as one of his country's most influential composers.

Every stage barber needs egos to shave and situations to save, and here they were political as well as romantic. Vieira was well paired with mezzo Adrienne Starr, who sang the conspiring seamstress, Paloma. Starr is a delight to watch, her every move musical, her words and voice appealingly projected, and romantically the bustling barber's equal. Tenor Ovidio Esquivel sang the political Loyalist, Don Luis, with strong feeling and style. He too seems a practiced singer, knowing how to phrase this score's more serious passages. He was mismatched by Kathryn Wieand's rebel Marquesa, however, whose soprano was too often strident and wiry. When this young singer later imitated a dusky mezzo in a comic duet with Starr, her voice seemed much more appropriately placed.

The stage was filled with conspirators, coquettes, and soldiers aiding the little barber in organizing a street riot, hiding the rebels, and then being taken to jail in a nobleman's sedan chair. A sextet of apprentice barbers having fun with shaving foam in their master's absence, for “Aqu“ está la ronda,” was a comic pleasure. And the chorus of seamstresses wishing to love the soldiers who would be wearing the nightshirts they were sewing (“Par que estás entre faldas,”) was equally delightful. The plot ends with the rebels' political success (“new dogs but with the same old collars!” comments the barber), and the festive finale brought the audience's prolonged applause.

Spanish dancing has always been strong in the Jarvis productions, and choreographers Mario La Vega and Mar“a del Sol provided this year's high-stepping jotas and castanet-clicking ensembles. The dimensional settings of the working-class district by designer Peter Crompton added depth to the small stage, and the many colorful costumes came from the Conservatory's zarazuela collection. Director Daniel Helfgot added a number of comic touches (a contingent of confused guards, the barely-made escapes), and seemed studiously to avoid the hands-on-hips clichés that have plagued past productions. Shigemi Matsumoto, who many might remember sang with San Francisco Opera in the 1970s, served as master coach.

There is no doubt these Jarvis workshop productions have gained in sophistication in the past three years, and that seems directly attributable to music director José Antonio Irastorza, who led his cast of twenty students and orchestra of twenty-eight with great vigor, style, and èlan.