I saw this a few weeks ago with the Carlsons at the Cobb Energy Center, performed by the Atlanta Opera company. In short, it was FANTASTIC. The venue was moderately nice as always, but the vocal quality of the performers was exceptional, particularly in the female lead, as was Basilio. All were good of course, and Berta was particularly impressive, but the first two greatly stood out. I wish it was still playing so I could recommend it, but at the least I'd check out other productions by the company.
The basic story is about a rich count who is in love with a beautiful shut in, hid by a psycho guardian who plans to marry her against her will. The count enlists the help of the barber who is the city's dating service. The Count dons various disguises to try and woo her, and chaos ensues. This particular production was only 2 hours long and tightly edited but it worked very well.
It had been at least 20 years since I'd seen an Opera, the performance of "Faust" at BYU, which was quite good but this blew it away. The addition of subtitles in a light box at the top helped quite a bit since I liked to know what they were saying. After all, if a foreign film can have them, why not an Opera?
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