Rossini – L’occasione fa il ladro

Berenice – Caroline MacPhie

Ernestina – Leslie Davis

Don Eusebio – Eliot Alderman

Count Alberto – Thomas Hobbs

Don Parmrnione – Oliver Dunn

Martino – Laurence Meikle

Conductor – Dominic Wheeler

Director – Daniele Guerra

Sets – Patrick Cahill

Costumes – Giulia Scrimieri

Lighting – Jake Wiltshire

Royal Academy Opera 13 May 2009

That momentous year 1812, which saw Napoleon catch a cold in Russia, also proved one of the most productive for Rossini; ‘Opportunity makes the Thief’ being only one work to appear, in company with La scala di seta and La pietra paragone. 

The curtain rises on the usual nondescript set, and the entrance of Parmenione and Martino established their Don Giovanni – Leporello relationship, the expansive timbre of Oliver Dunn dominating the lighter baritone of Laurence Meikle.  It was easy to imagine these two making the most from a chance exchange of luggage.

As the unfortunate Alberto, Thomas Hobbs provided some of the most enjoyable and accomplished singing of the evening.  As his fiancée, Berenice, Caroline MacPhie sang with a suitable blend of charm and vivacity – her interrogation of the bogus bridegroom was done with a wicked sense of humour.

Leslie Davis and Eliot Alderman contributed fully to the happy working out of the plot while Dominic Wheeler and the Royal Academy Sinfonia made a notable contribution to the proceedings.

In spite of the views expressed in the programme notes by the director, Daniele Guerra, suggesting a Pirandello-like concern for hidden identities, this is a light hearted farce; a soufflé by the master musical chef, Gioachino Rossini.  All the necessary ingredients are there – why then did it seem rather flat?

A set that had opened up like a suitcase to change the scene provided an effective moment of surprise, but the consequent hardboard floor, with its maze of plywood battens to be negotiated with care by the singers for the remainder of the performance may well have taken the edge off the comedy.

It is strange to find a short opera like this being the sole item of the evening; there must be any number of possible pieces of about an hour’s duration which could have shared the stage, avoiding that rather empty feeling as the curtain came down at 8.30pm.

Stuart Jenkins

See also L’occasione fa il ladro in 2008 at Guildhall School of Music & Drama

photographer Mark Whitehouse