As Opera Santa Barbara (OSB) turns, the tragic gravitas of Tosca, the resourcefully inventive production of which opened its 2022-23 season at the grand Granada Theatre gives way to tuneful and glorious silly piffle on Sunday, November 13, at the Lobero Theatre. Welcome to the comic opera world of Gioachino Rossini’s La Scala di Seta (translating to The Silk Ladder), the one-act, 1812-vintage example of operatic farsa comica popular in Venice circa the early 19th century.
Comic or not, the compact operatic enterprise is rife with Rossini’s elegant melodic bel canto inventiveness and character playfulness, as laid out in librettist Giuseppe Maria Foppa’s dizzy tale of romantic convolutions.
One of many reasons to catch the next installment of Opera Santa Barbara’s rich and varied season is its locally grown heroine, soprano Jana McIntyre, in the role of Giulia, the epicenter of a comic tangle of love interests. McIntyre is no stranger to OSB, having a memorable turn in Handel’s Semele last season, and, during the COVID lockdown, in the company’s venturesome “drive-in” production of Don Pasquale in April 2021.