Il Signor Bruschino is a huge hearty romp of laughter and complexity. Setting itself in an Italian setting, but also singing in English, the opera translated itself well to a little but lively audience at Chapel off Chapel.
Gioachino Rossini’s Il Signor Bruschino for the uninitiated is a tale of mistaken identity where the head of a fashion house Florville (played by Shanul Sharma) falls in love with a rival fashion house heir, Sofia (Rebecca Rashleigh), who is the daughter of the wonderfully brash Gaudenzio (Matt Thomas). This premise leads to a whole bunch of discoveries which leads to hilarious deceptions and stories that seem farcical if you think about the plot (more on this later).
This opera is performed vibrantly, with a display of colourfully fruitful fashion along with the spritely songs. It provided for some sunshine-y performances particularly from Genevieve Dickson, playing the secretary to Gaudenzio, whose background observations were quietly amusing. The same coming from Bruce Raggat playing the worrisome Signor Bruschino Sr.
While comically this opera works well, the plot where Florville impersonates Bruschino’s son makes it a little unbelievable – how does aperson think it’s a good idea to impersonate someone’s son? Wouldn’t the father just laugh at this guy? This could be put down to me being unfamiliar to the whole concept of opera itself, but questioning the plot points of a piece written in the 1800s can be somewhat of a pointless exercise.
Nevertheless the one-act opera was an amusing adventure where Sharma shined with such a tender tenor voice. It was actually amazing to read in the program that he fronted heavy metal bands for years before he took to the classical singing technique. Matt Thomas also deserves credit for his experienced soloist skills. There was a certain deep quality to his voice at times on stage.
Much credit should also go to Lucy Wilkins who produced costumes that looked to be daring and adventurous. I can’t say enough about the colours of the modern clothes each performer wore. Signor Bruschino with his greens, Florville with his orange / peach suit combo and Mariana’s yellow dress beautifully expressed the light hearted nature of this opera. It makes this production nicely rounded for a good time at the opera without it being so overly evocative.
Lyric Opera’s Il Signor Bruschino is playing at Melbourne’s Chapel Off Chapel until June 12. More info and tickets can be found here.
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