From the first note of one of the most rousing overtures I have heard (vigorously conducted under the confident baton of Bryan Nies) to the last slap of pounding palms from a standing, cheering audience, Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville at Opera San Jose is a complete triumph. In an expert, no-holds-barred, madcap staging by José Maria Condemi, this production reveals the rich comedy to be found in the score, in the libretto, in the choreography down to the last gesture, even in the props – rifles, swords, rain pots, pistols, apples, books, coins, the list is endless – if directed by an imaginative mind.

RTWT (you have to scroll down to the Opera San Jose review.