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Johan Hoskins and German Olvera in The Barber of Seville (Photo: Tristram Kenton)

There’s nothing like a balmy evening in Sussex to set one up for a journey to Seville. Glyndebourne’s 2025 season opened on Friday night with a revival of Annabel Arden’s raucous production of Il barbiere di siviglia, and with the sun, picnics and wine all out, we were transported to Spain before the show began. 

As we move into the auditorium from the sunny British countryside, we are welcomed to the streets and homes of Seville. The set is made up of enlarged, Moorish blue and white tiles with a picture of a bird taking flight – an apt symbol of the trapped woman longing for freedom at the centre of the opera.

Rory Macdonald’s conducting is infused by the joy of Rossini’s music. He leads the London Philharmonic Orchestra with extraordinary precision and energy: when you cannot see the orchestra, it often feels as if their music is emanating straight from his baton. 

The leads are as animated as their instrumental colleagues, and feel as though they have been plucked from a Pixar film: wide eyed caricatures who use every part of their voice, face and body to express themselves. This production is defined by exaggerated physicality and slapstick, and much of the humour derives from the way performers use their body on stage. Overall, the movement – by Toby Sedgwick Maxime Nourissat – is largely brilliant and brings clarity to a plot filled with disguise and deception, though the chorus still perhaps has a bit of work to go on their coordination.

Alessio Cacciamani and Fabio Capitanucci in The Barber of Seville (Photo: Tristram Kenton) 

American tenor Jonah Hoskins’ Almaviva has a delightful boyishness that is lovely to watch. His voice lacks the strength of his co-stars but his top notes are glorious, especially as the show goes on. Fabio Capitanucci plays a tragic, cuckolded Dr Bartolo, rather than an evil and conspiring captor, and his patter is brilliant, although it is occasionally lost under the LPO.

One of the highlights - and clearly a favourite moment for the audience - was Ailish Tynan’s ‘Il vecchiotto cerca moglie’. This aria (and often the whole role of Berta) can feel like an odd break in the plot, but with some surprise sexy lingerie and a doting younger dance partner, Tynan almost steals the show.

German Olvera as Figaro and Cecilia Molinari as Rosina are wildly fun to watch and both in fantastic voice. Olvera brings a Puck-like, pixie energy to his role as the seemingly omniscient and extraordinarily omnipresent barber - he appears from trap doors, walls, windows and even the orchestra pit. Molinari is fiery in both character and voice. Her coloratura shines, particularly in the piano lesson scene with Almaviva. 

With pianos coming from the rafters and a cast whose energy never falters, this production is wonderfully silly, but is made special by the spectacular music making throughout and proves Rossini’s classic is still razor-sharp, in every sense.