Garsington Opera opens season with a picturesque Barbiere di Siviglia

The cricket pitch at the Getty Estate at Wormsley is looking in tip-top condition this summer, while the opera festival housed alongside has weathered the blows that have rained down on the arts better than some.

Garsington Opera says its new multi-million pound arts hub is almost fully funded. Audiences are booking for operas they know, so the opening production of Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia is selling fast, and this season’s two other new productions — Mozart’s Mitridate, re di Ponto and Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos — stay true to composers who have played a notable part in Garsington’s history.

The Rossini comes with two strengths. This is Il barbiere di Siviglia on period instruments, and the effervescent playing of the English Concert, conducted by Douglas Boyd, is a joy. Much, including the shaving scene of Doctor Bartolo, is razor-sharp and everything is light on its feet.

The other big pleasure is designer Simon Higlett’s panoramic set (however long does it take to assemble it?). The stage is filled with a picturesque Spanish street scene, including Figaro’s barber shop, and the central buildings later swivel round to reveal a glittering art deco interior.

It is not clear why Christopher Luscombe’s genial production opted for the change of period, as little is gained and only one of the singers makes much of the art deco chic. This is Katie Bray’s Rosina, who sets off sparks at the top and bottom of her voice, and plays the role as a deliciously skittish “live wire” (in the English surtitles), a classic screen goddess.

The others come across paler than usual, despite some good voices. Firm-voiced Johannes Kammler is the down-to-earth Figaro, Richard Burkhard a caricature-free Bartolo, Callum Thorpe a sonorous Don Basilio and Andrew Stenson a Count Almaviva best heard in his lyrical singing, less so when the music gets fast. It just all feels lukewarm.

★★★☆☆

The pluses and minuses of Mitridate, re di Ponto are almost a mirror image. Composed when Mozart was 14, Mitridate resembles a lesser Handel opera in its ancient setting and farrago of tortured love triangles — but with Mozart’s fizzingly youthful music to lift the spirits.

Tim Albery’s minimalist production puts little on stage beyond a giant sofa and a zebra. In compensation, he fills the emotional space with highly charged characters whose passions keep the opera at boiling point. Mitridate is all about the music and the teenage Mozart unleashed a torrent of fast and furious arias that would make any singer’s hair stand on end.

Garsington’s cast delivers the goods in fine style. Robert Murray does a heroic job with Mitridate’s taxing tenor solos, even finding time to make them expressive. Countertenor Iestyn Davies’s Farnace is resplendent with supreme vocal purity. Elizabeth Watts, touching the heart as Aspasia in the opera’s darkest aria, and Soraya Mafi’s Ismene vie with each other for the highest top notes. Louise Kemény is barely far behind as a warm-voiced Sifare.

Throw in the English Concert again (superb horn soloist near the end), with conductor Clemens Schuldt putting his foot on the accelerator, and this judiciously cut performance of Mitridate fairly whizzes past.

★★★★☆

‘Il barbiere’ to July 22, ‘Mitridate’ to July 2, garsingtonopera.org