Less Than Sharp ‘ Barber of Seville’

The most famous entrance aria in opera is Figaro’s “Largo al factotum” in Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville.” Everyone in the sold-out Irvine Barclay Theatre on Saturday was waiting for John Packard to sing it in Opera Pacific’s new co-production of Rossini’s sparkling comedy with Madison Opera.

Packard had just appeared last month as the murderer Joseph DeRocher in Jake Heggie’s “Dead Man Walking.” Though that was all well and good, it didn’t given him an opportunity to sing a hit tune, much less a piece that challenges a baritone’s high voice and breath control. Could Packard sing?

So as the familiar warp-speed introduction revved up, what did we see? A couple of street urchins preceding an Italian stereotype of a pushcart vendor, wearing a bowtie, a dandyish suit and a stylish felt hat. This was our Figaro, who would immediately act out a number of the aria’s lines, including the insinuating one about delivering assignation notes between men and women. Here he took a note from one little girl and gave it to a boy, who gave him an apple to take back to the girl.

It was all too cute, and very typical of the anything-for-a-laugh, hyperactive stage direction by Linda Brovsky.

You want to know how he sang: He had trouble with the first high G but recovered. His baritone was tight and steely and had a fast vibrato. He didn’t triumph, but he didn’t disgrace himself, and like a true professional he covered gracefully when he couldn’t pull a pair of scissors out of his cart on cue.

Throughout, Packard was a desperately needed though excessively used galvanizing force in this blunt version of Rossini’s comedy.

Lynette Tapia brought one of the tiniest sopranos in existence to the role of Rosina. She used it agilely and evenly, although never stylishly growing and expanding on any phrase. Her mugging projected far further than her voice did in the 750-seat theater, and that’s saying something. Every ensemble had to be adjusted down to keep the other singers from overwhelming her, which was one of the reasons--but only one--that the vocal energy level was so low.

John Osborn sang Count Almaviva coarsely, but he had a voice twice the size of Tapia’s, which lent an unexpected comedic edge to their declarations of love.

Andrew Fernando, now an Opera Pacific resident artist, acquitted himself solidly as Doctor Bartolo, maintaining vocal and dramatic dignity even in such tasteless requirements as singing the start of his second act aria in falsetto to parody a once-famous castrato.

Silvia Vasquez, another resident artist, did not fare as well in Berta’s aria, but there is promise there. Christopher Scott Feigum boomed in Basilio’s slander aria and swung his obligatory black umbrella as well as anyone.

Dipu Gupta designed the bright unit set pieces, which were rolled into place by cast members (extravagantly so for the brief storm scene in the final act). Beverley Thies designed the unsubtle lighting, although the theater seemed to be having electrical problems that night. The curtain rose prematurely twice, and the lights outside the theater flickered on and off during the intermission. Marie Anne Chiment designed the bright costumes. Once past a miserably prepared Overture, conductor Robert Tweten enforced reasonably taut tempos and coherence.

“The Barber of Seville,” Opera Pacific, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m., Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine. $40-$65. (949) 854-4646.