Florez Photo by Robert Millard

Rossini's indestructible masterpiece, The Barber of Seville, is enjoying a particularly felicitous revival at LA Opera. The eye-catching production hails from the Teatro Real in Madrid, which assures a certain amount of authenticity. But the opera has never been about the reality of the class system or the proto-revolutionary spirit of the original Beaumarchais play. Rossini wisely left that to Mozart. Instead his Figaro opera  stressed the Italian commedia roots and  reveled in the character's buffa antics: a handsome nobleman falls in love with the clever ward of a ridiculous doctor who is determined to marry the girl for her fortune. His scheme is foiled and the lovers united through the intervention of the wily barber/surgeon/general factotum of the town.

Singers love Barber as it offers three brilliant star vehicles and two meaty character roles. In fact, greedy coloratura sopranos snatched the role of Rosina (originally written for a mezzo) and made it their own for well over a century--many of them  interpolating their personal showstoppers into the Lesson Scene. An increasing respect for Rossini and Bel Canto opera in the 20th Century has pretty much ended those kinds of liberties, and the rise of a stellar group of outstanding mezzos has brought Rossini's original conception back the opera house.

The highly anticipated Los Angeles debut of Juan Diego Florez as the Count was the major impetus for this production, and he did not disappoint. From the first moments of the opera, Florez proves himself a fearless clown as well as a peerless interpreter of Rossini. He sings with richly varied colors, spinning out the passionate longing of his love and nimbly tossing off the vocal fireworks called for by the composer. The crowd goes mad for him.

But this is no one-man show. Both Joyce DiDonato's Rosina and Nathan Gunn's Figaro give the Peruvian tenor a run for his money. Like Florez, DiDonato has been making quite a name for herself in this repertoire, though hers is a more crowded vocal field. Her Rosina is a marvel of bravura vocalism and tart acting. Her lush and creamy tones easily fills the house and brings the character to vivid life. Nathan Gunn is a stylish singer who brings an easy, offhanded charm to Figaro. Moving with the grace of an athlete and singing with a warmly ingratiating vibrancy, his Figaro manages to stay in control of the complicated proceedings without seeming to break a sweat. In other roles, Bruno Pratico's Doctor Bartolo is truly the funniest I've seen, and his patter singing is unparalleled in my experience. Andrea Silvestrelli may be Italian, but his voice has the grainy heft of Russian bass, making him a particularly forceful and slimy Don Basilio.

Javier Ulacia has built on staging originated by Emilio Sagi, peopling the scenes with a troupe of dancers who move the scenery, play servants and townspeople, spy on the Principals and generally make "alone time" a scarcity in Seville. This serves to keep the action in constant, and sometimes relentless, motion. This is the sort of direction that believes that any good comic bit worth doing is worth doing three times. Still, the staging never fights the opera and is,on the whole, a buoyant platform for the performances. Llorenc Corbella's elaborately mobile sets create the feel of the town and include witty touches like the Rossini wallpaper. The richly detailed and beautiful costumes by Renata Schussheim start in stark black and white, slowly developing into vibrant colors as love and freedom triumph.

Michele Mariotti marshaled the orchestra in an efficient and singer-friendly manner.

Dorothy Chandler Pavilion November 29 – December 19, 2009  213 872-8001 www.laopera.com