Florian Sempey - Rossini: Figaro? Sì! - Opera News

Ever since, at a mere twenty-six, Florian Sempey starred as Figaro at Pesaro’s Rossini Opera Festival, the now thirty-four-year- old French baritone has made the resourceful barber a calling card.

This recital is, in short, fun. Sempey’s handsome, middleweight baritone projects that from the start, with a nimble, characterful rendition of—what else?—“Largo al factotum”; he may be French by birth, but he savors the words like a true Italian. Karine Deshayes then joins him for the Figaro–Rosina duet; her light-timbred mezzo traces the music elegantly, and she enters charmingly into the playful spirit he’s established so well.