BWW Reviews: MET OPERA - IL BARBIERE DE SEVIGLIA, Cineworld Wandsworth, November 22 2014

You pay more for a ticket than the punters checking in for another Hunger Games franchise outing in the next screen along, but less than the rather smart young set we see taking their places at the New York Metropolitan Opera for Il Barbiere di Siviglia. So does this "as live, beamed around the world" gig work? My answer would be a qualified yes.

While the locals are thumbing through their (free) programmes, we get a photocopy of the synopsis and a cast list - better than nothing, but not much. The camera then cuts to a New Yorker maven who introduces the show and plugs the sponsors. The set is gorgeous, the multiple cameras mixing wide shots with close-ups of the singers and the musicians are apparently unobtrusive and the familiar overture has never sounded more jaunty through the cinema's top notch sound system. It's most definitely a notch or two above the DVD experience, even on televisions that sprawl over a living room wall.

But then things start to go awry. The projection is not set up properly, so we can't see all the subtitles and the tops of heads are missing from the top of the screen. This is corrected for Act II, but really shouldn't have happened at all, especially as the live nature of the transmission means that the show, literally, must go on. An occasional jerky picture didn't help matters either, an irritation rather than a full-on frustration as the sound was uninterrupted.

If that was the downside (but not quite all the downside), the upside was the quality of the production and broadcast. The singing and playing was magnicent, as one would expect, Bartlett Sher's production was also brilliantly captured by Matthew Diamond's direction for the screen. It's particularly pleasing to be privy to all the asides and eyebrow-arching from Christopher Maltman's puckish Figaro and Isabel Leonard's sexy Rosina. They get excellent support from seasoned pros, with Maurizio Muraro and Paata Burchuladze particulary impressive as the Dr Bartolo / Don Basilio double act. Best of all was the awesome Lawrence Brownlee, whose Count Almaviva showcased his peerless vocals and natural gift for comedy. Surely he was born to play this part - and worth the ticket price alone.

After 90 minutes or so of this 210-minute presentation, the intermission arrives and one welcomes the opportunity to rest the eyes, ears and brain in the quiet of the cinema, away from teens, hyped up on sugary drinks and popcorn, re-enacting Katniss's battles outside. Except we don't get that! Back comes the maven to interview Isabel and Lawrence backstage! I don't want them to break character and talk about previous roles and how much they're enjoying the run - they're Rosina and The Count and they're in jeopardy! There's a few more plugs for sponsors and then, worst of all, an interview and clip from the rehearsal room of the forthcoming Merry Widow, just to break the mood further. Then there's some Wagner from 2001 and, with a brain now unrested and filled with music that is not Rossini's, we're back and able to read the subtitles properly. If it doesn't happen at the Opera House, it shouldn't happen in the cinema.

That said, the production is so outstanding that one easily falls back in with the lovers, their berazored accomplice and the two baddies who aren't that bad really, and everyone lives happily ever after. Would I go again? I would and I will, but there's things that need addressing in Wandsworth and in New York. And wouldn't it be better to price the tickets without such a steep premium (£19.30 instead of £11.00 for Wednesday's L'elisir D'Amore from the Royal Opera House) and sell more seats? Like flying a plane at 15% capacity, it doesn't make sense for a cinema to have so many seats unoccupied for a one-off show.

You can see other special events at Cineworld by clicking here. I'll be reviewing as many as I can get to (and afford!).

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