Italian opera to close Shanghai Spring International Music Festival

The Italian opera Il Barbiere di Siviglia will be the closing production for this year's Shanghai Spring International Music Festival on April 14.

Jointly produced by Shanghai Conservatory of Music and Teatro Sociale Como in Italy, the production of Gioachino Rossini's comic opera features an international cast, conducted by Carlo Goldstein, and directed by Ivan Stefanutti.

"This collaboration has provided a precious opportunity for our students to bring to the stage what they learned in the classroom," according to Zong Shi, a bass singer and professor of Shanghai Conservatory of Music, who will take the role of Basilio in the production. A lot of the characters, the chorus and members of the orchestra will all be taken by students of the conservatory, he said.

Stefanutti, the director, took a new approach to the opera as a story of dark humor and created a setting of midnight. He found that "Rossini's humor has many levels", and decided to present the story in "a big night with lots of impressive presence of magician and vampire...a Rock night".

The Italian opera will have four performances at Shangyin Opera House in Shanghai from Apr 13 to 16.