Rossini's Le Comte Ory is a delightful opera containing an
absurd story, a good deal of zany humour and some music as subtle and enchant- ing as Mozart at his best. Carl Ebert's Glynde- bourne production is now resuscitated with nearly the same cast as adorned it at Edinburgh in 1954 and the result is as pleasing as before. There are, to be sure, some minor blemishes both in production (the humour was sometimes fed rather too forcibly and the French was often execrable to the point of incomprehensibility) and in creation (there are some long stretches and an occasional sense of dew vu); but these defects are easily outweighed, the first by some splendid singing, particularly from Juan Oncina (Ory) and Sari Barabas (Adele), also by Oliver Messel's enchanting sets; the second by the exquis- ite playing of Gui and the Royal Philharmonic.
H. F.
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