Presented by Darwin Entertainment Centre in association with Darwin Festival

The stage is set for comic chaos in opera at its light-hearted, effervescent best.

The Barber of Seville fizzes and pops with lyrical acrobatics and irrepressibly funny characters. Almaviva is wealthy, stealthy and head over heels. Smitten Rosina is witty and pretty with razor-sharp smarts. She’s also inconveniently betrothed. They need a plan. Time to call on: Fi-ga-ro! Figaro! Figaro! Our enterprising barber has wits and tricks as sharp as his scissors. Beyond haircuts and beard trims, the canny Figaro is the city’s matchmaking maestro. It takes all of his clever disguises, subterfuge and scheming to wrangle a romantic encounter for the would-be lovers. 

Rossini’s most famous ‘opera buffa’ is a musical masterpiece with a storyline that would be equally at home in a Hollywood rom-com. Opera Australia’s finest voices and a live orchestra deliver a score that is instantly familiar from movies, cartoons and commercials. Here, the frothy humour is intoxicating and the chorus revels in every uproarious escapade.  

If you like Downton Abbey, Sliding Doors, clever disguises gone wrong and a case of mistaken identities then you’ll delight in this riotous romp along the road to true love.