It was just one year ago that opera soprano Jacinta Barbachano performed in San Miguel de Allende as the youthful and highly desirable single Rosina in “The Barber of Saville.” One year on, she will have to age 10 years as the story resumes this weekend in “The Marriage of Figaro.”

Older but wiser, as they say. 

For soprano Barbachano that may well be the key to her character, the now Countess Rosina, in the highly anticipated Pro Musica production of “The Marriage of Figaro.”

“It is an interesting goal vocally and as a character,” Barbachano acknowledged recently. “Things will be more demanding for my voice. She is not a girl anymore.”

No indeed. In “Barber of Seville,” Count Almaviva (Enrique Angeles) wooed and won Rosina with the help of the clever schemester Figaro (Alberto Albarran). Along the way, he banished a barbaric practice called droit du seigneur, the Medieval right of the nobility to have sex with any female subject.

Yes, this was a very real thing. The “Your body, my choice,” of its day.

But now, the count has a roving eye and it is focused on Figaro’s fiancee, Susana (Anabel de la Mora), and he wonders, was he too hasty in scraping the droit du seigneur? Alas for the count, when Susana and the Countess join forces, he is badly outmatched.

“Rosina is genuine, she is clever, she is intelligent, she knows exactly what she wants – although on the inside she is very sweet,” says Barbachano, adding with a self-conscious giggle that she identifies very strongly with the character.

(Read more about Pro Musica’s “Figaro” here.)

Most importantly, “she knows her role being married to the Count.” Rosina has to thwart her husband’s libidinous and adulterous ambitions without damaging his male psyche or toppling his position of authority. 

The madcap intrigue that ensues happens in the course of a single day. Mozart and librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte pulled out all the stops with over-the-top palace intrigue – mistaken identities, gender-swapping, character exchanging, overheard plots and counter-plots, misunderstood messages, missed opportunities, and a lot of hiding in the very large closet. And the mother of all plot twists near the end.

This is so much like Shakespeare at his most madcap, with a dash of the Marx Brothers, that you might say all’s well that ends well – and get away with it.

Barbachano is no stranger to “Figaro.” She made her professional debut in 2018 with the Compañía Nacional de Ópera, as Cherubino, a teenage page boy who is infatuated with Countess Almaviva, while compulsively flirting with other women.

Older but wiser, indeed!

For Barbachano, this will be her third opera in San Miguel de Allende and her third with director Rodrigo Garciarroyo, whom she praises for his talent for “drawing the best out of every singer.” By now, she has grown comfortable with his style and says it affords her peace of mind as she prepares for the role.

For Garciarroyo to be able to pull off “The Marriage of Figaro” with only a month of rehearsal is “impressive” says Barbachano. “It is a very difficult opera,” she adds, “but they are very organized.”

Barbachano will be familiar to San Miguelians from her role as Rosina last year in “The Barber of Seville” and as Dorabella in 2022 in “Cosi Fan Tutti.” But even before that, she was a finalist in the Metropolitan Opera’s regional competitions held here in 2019 and 2020.

Barbachano has had a full calendar leading right up to “The Marriage of Figaro.” 

She was a finalist for a solo performance with the National Symphony Orchestra in Mexico City and in January, she will perform at the Alfonso Ortiz Tirado Festival in Alamos, Sonora state. 

At a San Miguel benefit in January, Barbachano sang excerpts from the opera-in-production, “The House on Mango Street” accompanied by panist Mario Alberto Hernández. The opera is based on the book by San Miguel author Sandra Cisneros, who is working with composer Derek Bermel.

Whew.

It’s a wonder the girl has any time left for palace intrigue.

But she does. Oh, yes, she does.

(Photos courtesy of Jacinta Barbachano)