A NEW »BARBER OF SEVILLE« FOR THE VIENNA STATE OPERA HOUSE
About the production and the cast
After 55 years, a new production of Rossini's masterpiece Il barbiere di Siviglia is coming to the Vienna State Opera: on September 28, 2021, the production conducted by Michele Mariotti will celebrate its premiere, staged for the first time by Herbert Fritsch at the Vienna State Opera. Mariotti, who has made a great name for himself starting with the bel canto repertoire and has been a guest at all the major houses from the New York Met to Milan's La Scala and London's Royal Opera House, will make his State Opera house debut on opening night. And Herbert Fritsch, whose distinguished artistic range extends from acting to set design to staging, is considered a master of intelligent, ambiguous and physically burlesque humor - as has already been experienced at the Burgtheater. That the production will lead the audience along paths of extraordinary musical theater is ensured not least by the cast of singers: Vasilisa Berzhanskaya, internationally acclaimed as a new star in the Rossini field, makes her house debut with Rosina, Juan Diego Flórez is probably the ideal cast for Count Almaviva, Ildar Abdrazakov gives the role of Basilio a special vocal and acting profile, and Étienne Dupuis, the bravura Valentin of the Faust premiere in spring 2021, now also shows his comic side as Figaro. The premiere series also features the internationally sought-after Italian baritone Paolo Bordogna as Bartolo and the Austrian audience favorite Ruth Brauer-Kvam in her State Opera debut as Ambrogio.
Director portrait Herbert Fritsch
»It's not at all true that actors always want to be liked. I think it's good when you have a pack down there in front of you that's about to beat you to death. You swing the red cloth like a matador in front of the audience« said Herbert Fritsch, looking back on his ensemble membership at Frank Castorf's Berliner Volksbühne from 1990 to 2007, the theater where he had his breakthrough as a director in 2011 with Die (s)panische Fliege. In the meantime, he has also been highly successful in the opera business. In a director's portrait on September 26 (11 a.m. in the Gustav Mahler Hall), dramaturge Nikolaus Stenitzer will present Herbert Fritschs work in conversation with the artist and with the help of video sequences of important works.
Il barbiere di Siviglia on radio, TV and streaming
The premiere on September 28, 2021, will be broadcast live on Radio Ö1 starting at 7 p.m., and on October 9, 2021, the new production will be broadcast on ORF 2 at 8:15 p.m. in the main evening program.
ARTE will broadcast the new Barbiere on November 28, 2021, and will offer a stream on the online platform ARTE Concert from that date.
On October 9 at 8.15 pm Il barbiere di Siviglia can be seen here on the streaming platform myfidelio.