Coming from the Metropolitan Opera, the guest director had high expectations and the Conservatory did not disappoint. 

The setting of the opera, the country estate of Count Almaviva, near Seville, in Andalusia, Spain, was moved from the late 18th Century to the 1920’s. Consequently the formal etiquette, constrained movement, and protocol of the late 18th Century yielded to the freer mores and unrestricting fashions of the aristocratic class in the 1920’s. Although the time setting changed the motivating plot dynamics in relation to class, marital obligation and responsibility, the pivotal elements of droit du seigneur and injustice were still firmly retained.

The stage set evoked the colors, textures and gentility of sunny Andalusia, mingled with a fading aristocracy in decay.