The Barber of Seville in Thessaloniki 09/05/2003 A most inspired collaboration this theatre season brings actrice Carmen Ruggeri in Thessaloniki and "The Barber of Seville" to the Sofoulis Theatre. The music performance that was being prepared for months in Athens with much enthusiasm, is now ready to spread its magic to young and older music theatre lovers in the city of Thessaloniki. Of Rossini's three dozen or so operas, The Barber of Seville is probably the best known, a treatment of the first play of the Figaro trilogy by Beaumarchais on which Mozart had drawn thirty years before in Vienna. The Barber of Seville seems to be the ultimate opera of reaction: Romanticism's reaction to the Enlightenment. Like other Romantic characters in opera and literature, Rossini's characters -absurd stereotypes- leave their fates to circumstance, coincidence, and trickery. In this opera Rossini takes nothing seriously: God, society, love and even music. He thumbs his nose at his more serious contemporaries such as Beethoven and Schubert. While Mozart celebrated the richness of the human experience, Rossini wanted his audiences to have a good time, not to think too hard about what they saw on stage. The play is directed and adapted by Carmen Ruggeri herself, set and stage design is Christina Kouloumbi's, music adaptations by Yannis Makridis, lyrics written by Andreas Kouloumbis. Choreographies by Petros Gallias and lightings by Anestis Ataktidis. Assistant directior is Katia Paschou. Author : www.travelling-greece.com