This Rossini opera, a classic opera buffa, had 2 settings:  a street in front of Dr. Bartolo’s house with Rosina’s window and balcony overlooking, and a salon inside Bartolo’s house. Both scenes had to be thoughtfully designed to motivate and support the comedic stage actions.

Doctor Bartolo, Rosina’s overly protective guardian, covets Rosina in a less-than-savory way.  In our production, Bartolo was a classic 18th C dilettanti, a gentleman who obsessively collects exotic things: object d’art, scientific specimens, curiosities, and women. Two enormous bookcases filled with specimen bell jars and rare objects from the Natural World flanked Bartolo’s salon. Upstage left was another large cabinet displaying his butterfly collection, each brightly colored specimen carefully pinned and displayed. If he can connive it, Rosina could become his young wife, another prize possession for his collection.

The set was designed and built to tour.