Park City Opera will bring some well-timed humor, beautiful voices and side-splitting chaos to the stage when it raises the curtain on its full-production debut — Giachino Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville,” or “Il barbiere di Siviglia” in Italian.
The production, which tells the story of Figaro, a barber who helps a count named Almaviva win the heart of a wealthy maiden, Rosina, from the greedy Bartolo, will open for all ages on Aug. 24 at the Park City Library’s Jim Santy Auditorium and then move Aug. 29 and 30 for audience members aged 21 and older at Premiere Park City, 268 Main St.
The cast includes tenor Jordan Costa as the Count, who also goes by the alias Lindoro, bass Mark Covey as Bartolo, mezzo-soprano Sarah Neal as Rosina, bass Joseph Park as Bassilio, Rosina’s music teacher, and baritone Jake Stamatis as Figaro.
Other cast members include Park City Opera Executive Director and soprano Lena Goldstein as Berta, the old governess in Bartolo’s house; bass Christopher Holmes as Fiorello, Almaviva’s servant; and ensemble members tenors Steve Plumb and Jacob Kenison and bass Akshay Ghiya.
The Park Record caught up with the main cast earlier this week during rehearsals at Temple Har Shalom, and the artists, all of whom live in different parts of the country, expressed their love for the production, Park City and Park City Opera.
“I think it’s such a well-constructed show,” said Stamatis. “The characters are interesting. The story is not too unbelievable, but there is just enough fantasticness to it. So, you can understand how you can get from point A to point B, and audiences buy it if that gets a little silly along the way.”
Stamatis, who is a freelance opera performer from Florida, said Figaro is a character he would aspire to even off stage.
“He’s clever,” he said. “He’s funny and always has the answers, and people know they can come to him with something and he will make it happen.”
Stamatis’ road to singing opera started off a little rocky while he was in middle school.
“I always like to sing, and I joined the choir in middle school, mainly because both my older sisters did it,” he said. “I was a shy kid, but I loved singing so much.”
Unfortunately, Stamatis was tone deaf.
“I didn’t have the talent, but my teachers saw I liked it,” he said. “I had one teacher, Al Purdy in Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania — who has since retired — who would work with me after class to help me learn to match pitch.”
While some people think singing is a talent, Stamatis knows it’s a skill that can be developed.
“Thank goodness it is,” he said with a laugh. “Now, it’s my livelihood, vocation and the way I pay my bills. It’s also the thing I get the most rewards out of. And I get to do this full time.”
Performing with the Park City Opera brings Stamatis to Utah for the first time.
“It’s beautiful, and I have loved my stay so far,” he said. “The altitude has been an adjustment, especially singing this very complicated music that requires a lot of breath. So, it’s something I’ve had to acclimate, for sure. But now we’re about a week-and-a-half in, and so I feel my body is used to this level of altitude and I’m ready to start digging in.”
In one of the opera’s most famous scenes, Stamatis’ Figaro gives Covey’s Bartolo a spa treatment while helping Rosina and Lindoro get together.
Covey, who was born in Monterey, Mexico, and now lives in San Antonio, Texas, deliberately auditioned for the role of Bartolo.
“I’ve sung a lot of different roles, but (his) is what I call the quintessential ‘buffo’ role, which is basically a comedy role,” he said. “I’ve always felt I should go in that direction.”
Still, Covey, whose original musical career was going to be a classical guitarist, doesn’t see any of his own attributes in Bartolo.
“It’s because he’s a psychopath,” he said with a laugh.
To prepare for the role, Covey puts himself into the story and situations the best he can.
“The situational humor is what I personally find is funny,” he said. “So, when people ask how I play a comical character, my opinion is if you as an actor can see the humor in certain situations and play it honestly, it will come across to the audience.”
Throughout his career, Covey has performed different roles in “The Barber of Seville,” and he’s honored to be in the Park City Opera debut.
“It’s an iconic opera, and it has the most recognizable tunes in the entire genre,” he said. “The music is great, and the story is funny. It’s such an important opera in history, and I’m proud to be a part of it.”
One of Covey’s goals for singing opera is to stir up some emotion in the audience.
“When I was 15 years old, my parents bought me a ticket to see ‘Camen’ at the Metropolitan Opera,” he said. “I went by myself because nobody else wanted to go, and at the end of the production I was in tears. And I want to make people feel the way I did that night.”
While Covey doesn’t see himself in Bartolo, Neal — who hails from Houston, Texas, via South Bend, Indiana — shares some attributes with Rosina.
“Not to toot my own horn, but I think she’s clever,” they said. “She’s very independent, or wants to be, despite the fact that she’s being held captive and shut away by Bartolo. And I think she loves Lindoro, but also, because of her intelligence and want for independence, she sees him as a way out.”
Neal originally majored in literature and French while attending Loyola University in New Orleans, Louisiana.
“It was a small liberal arts school, so they let me sing at recitals and in operas and take voice lessons,” they said. “(Music) was more of a hobby, but I pivoted when I decided to do my master’s.”
Neal felt they could read books forever but wouldn’t be able to sing forever.
“So, I moved to the University of Houston and studied voice,” they said.
Neal enjoys working with Park City Opera.
“I love singing for young new companies, and I think we need as many opera companies as we can get in the United States,” they said. “Park City is gorgeous, and people are so friendly. It feels like there is an enthusiasm for classical music. We’ve done a lot of outreach concerts already, and people seem into it. And that’s so promising.”
Neal, whose favorite opera is Richard Strauss’ “Salome,” loves that “The Barber of Seville” works as an ensemble piece.
“It’s such a funny opera, and that comes from the way the characters interact with one another,” they said. “Other operas go from aria to aria to aria and solo to solo to solo, whereas in this one we’re all running around on stage. While there are some big show-stoppers that are really exciting, I think the fun comes from the goofy interactions and moments when there is pure chaos on stage.”
Costa, like Neal, also loves the overall feel of “The Barber of Seville.”
“I’ve been lucky enough to do this opera a bunch of times, and the libretto is so funny,” he said. “Then there’s the music. It’s rare where every part of the score is a gem.”
Costa is also keen on Park City Opera’s interpretation of the opera, especially how the company’s co-founders Goldstein, Artistic Director and conductor Benjamin Beckman and Development Director Lisl Wangermann, who is also directing the production, bring things together.
“Ben has really done his homework as far as building a performance practice,” Costa said. “He was clear in letting us know to come in super prepared with the Italian, and then there are things he’s doing with tempi articulation. It’s been a blast.”
Costa came to opera through musical theater.
“That was my first love, and like every good young Jewish boy, I thought I was Barbara Streisand,” he said with a laugh. “But I kept getting the note from directors that I was too operatic.”
At that time, Costa was in an awkward age and was a little over 5 feet tall and weighed 200 pounds.
“I think I wore it well, but I was told I would never play a leading man because I didn’t look like a leading man,” he said. “So, I shut musicals out of my life, which was painful.”
Although Costa did eventually return to musical theater in college, he spent his time finding out about opera.
“I asked myself ‘What was opera?’ and I asked my dad, ‘How do you spell Pavoratti?’” Costa said with a laugh. “Then I fell down the rabbit hole.”
Costa’s parents let him go see his first opera for one of his birthdays.
“It was a show at the Metropolitan Opera, which happened to be ‘The Barber of Seville,’” he said. “I remember being so worried that I would go and the other people would stare at me and think I wasn’t smart enough to be at an opera.”
Those worries evaporated once the curtain rose.
“It was so funny,” said Costa, who lives with his husband in Tucson, Arizona. “So, now every time I see an audition for ‘The Barber of Seville’ I usually try it.”
Like Covey and Bartolo, Costa doesn’t see himself in his character.
“Normally I play parts much like myself, but talking with Lisl, it has always sort of bugged me that, yes, the Count can be so sweet, but he’s also the same guy that is not the greatest person,” he said. “And the more we looked through the libretto, you see traces of this everywhere.”
Almaviva likes to hang out with those whose class is lower than his, but he likes that feeling of superiority, according to Costa.
“He needs to feel that power disparity, and he uses money like a ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ card,” he said.
Still, Almaviva’s story arc is one of redemption.
“I think the best thing dramatically in the entire opera is he starts off wanting to be the White Knight to rescue the Damsel Rosina, but then discovers throughout the opera just how much depth there is to her,” Costa said. “We see him transform from Act I where he’s very full himself to where he starts becoming more sincere and seeing her as a three-dimensional person. Sure, it’s like a farce, and it’s tight enough that it can be snappy and read as camp. But we’ve all found these moments where we can ground it into something that is more real.”
For Park, who plays a music teacher, the reality of his upbringing was his family being ironically void of any singers or artists.
“But I was going to church every Sunday, and by doing that I participated in the church choir as a kid,” he said. “I never heard any opera, and I never dreamed that I could be a singer. But as I grew up the people around me recommended me to take a voice lesson or do something classical.”
Park, who is originally from South Korea and now lives in Waco, Texas, with his wife, likes “The Barber of Seville” because of its comedy, and he’s happy how Park City Opera draws it out.
“I have seen other productions where they focus on other things and they sometimes lose the funny jokes,” he said. “So in this process at Park City, we’re trying to find the funny parts and exaggerate them as much as possible. I think that makes this more accessible and a fun production.”
Park also has a special connection with “The Barber of Seville,” especially his role.
“My first professional performance was in this opera,” he said. “I did small roles, but now I’m going Don Basillo, which was my dream role when I was doing the small roles. So it’s kind of my dream come true.”
Park’s love for the role moves beyond notes and interpretation.
“I usually walk and run a lot to keep my health and stamina up because when we do rehearsals, as time goes on, our energy level drops,” he said. “I want to keep my energy up. So, when I’m walking or running, I always listen to this role because I love it so much.”
Park sees performing and rehearsing this role as a growing process.
“This is where I develop my voice more and more, and it’s nice to share my talent with the community here,” he said.
Park City Opera’s ‘The Barber of Seville’
- When: 2 p.m., Aug. 24
- Where: Park City Library’s Jim Santy Auditorium, 1255 Park Ave.
- When: Aug. 29 and 30
- Where: Premiere Park City, 268 Main St.
- Tickets: tinyurl.com/5tsj2t27
- Web: parkcityopera.org