After the show: 'Barber of Seville' hilarious

(September 27, 2008) - A late start due to a nearby traffic accident didn’t interfere with the comedic entertainment provided by the Mercury Opera’s performance of The Barber of Seville on Friday night.

The outstanding cast turned the opera — performed as the Greece Athena Performing Arts Center — into a 19th century comedy club, garnering laughter and hoots from the audience and a well-deserved standing ovation.

In Barber of Seville, Count Almaviva (Daniel Weeks) is trying to win the love of Rosina (Quinn Patrick), without revealing his wealth.

He calls on the help of the local barber Figaro (Evan Jones) to deceive Rosina’s keeper, Bartolo (Jimi James), with pranks that mostly fail in hilarious and unexpected ways.

It was a last-minute appearance for Weeks (the original actor set to play Almaviva had to bow out due to illness). However, he showed off a true ringing tenor with such assuredness that he could lend his attention to his acting, where he stumbled around as a drunk man and posed as an annoying musician all to get the girl.

Patrick showed off a sweet mezzo soprano that had just enough bite to make her character smart and witty rather than helpless.

If anything, Jones who was out-acted by the rest of the cast. The barber is meant to be the center of the comedy.

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