Dragon Review: The Barber of Seville, Grange Park Opera

Published on: 27 Jun, 2026
Updated on: 27 Jun, 2026

A snatched moment together: Count Almaviva (Nico Darmanin) and Rosina (Ginger Costa-Jackson). Picture: Marc Brenner

By Alice Fowler

On an evening so hot we may truly believe we are in southern Spain, there can be few distractions more delightful than Grange Park Opera’s new production, Il Barbiere di Siviglia – The Barber of Seville.

Rossini’s comic opera – more alluring in Italian as opera buffa – is a riotous confection of thwarted love, disguised identities, stolen keys and devious scheming, in which lovestruck Count Almaviva tries to wrest a beautiful young woman, Rosina, from the control of her guardian and would-be husband, Don Bartolo. All this is artfully enabled by the barber, Figaro (James Newby, excellent), who oils the wheels of this fast-changing plot.

Rossini’s joyous, questioning, sometimes scolding, often fevered score is brought to dazzling life by the Gascoigne Orchestra, led by Robert Salter and conducted by Gianluca Marciano. Ginger Costa-Jackson excels as Rosina, the beautiful, spirited young woman whose future is at stake. Rosina may usually – she claims – be dutiful and submissive; but, when crossed, she is ‘a viper with a hundred tricks to play’.

Rosina (Ginger Costa-Jackson) dreams of escape. Picture: Marc Brenner

All these tricks are needed as she seeks to fend off her controlling guardian (a splendid Simon Bailey) and allow her ardent suitor the Count (Nico Darmanin, also excellent) to prevail. Julian Close, as Don Basilio – Rosina’s highly corruptible music teacher – and Ailish Tynan as Berta, the housekeeper, add lustre to a stellar cast.

As the opera’s title suggests, it is the barber, Figaro, on which all depends. We first meet James Newby as Figaro when the shutters of his upstairs window open and we discover him naked, singing lustily in the shower. Director Bruno Ravella and designer Francis O’Connor bring Il Barbiere’s comic aspects to the fore – never more so than in this scene, in which Figaro scrubs, shaves and dresses, while proclaiming his good fortune in being a barber. On a very hot night, with many in the audience needing constant fanning to keep cool, the sight of Figaro’s (hopefully cold) shower took on an extra resonance.

This year marks Grange Park Opera’s tenth year at West Horsley Place, marked by an ambitious programme including Wagner’s Das Rheingold (the start of his Ring Cycle, lasting through to 2030), the world premiere of Krishna by John Tavener, and Verdi’s Don Carlo.

Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia is based on French playwright Beaumarchais’ Le Barbier de Seville, written in 1773. Others, like me, may remember studying this play for French A-level, decades ago. What a treat to see it performed in operatic form in the enchanting Theatre in the Woods.

For tickets and information, see https://grangeparkopera.co.uk