Since its debut in 2006, Bartlett Sher’s production of The Barber of Seville at the Metropolitan Opera has had a string of excellent Rosinas: Diana Damrau, Joyce DiDonato and Elina Garanca. They have all been different from one another, and they have all been sparkling. Add a fourth Rosina to the string: Isabel Leonard, the American mezzo-soprano. On a recent Friday night, she was a model of poise. You have heard “Una voce poco fa” with more razzle-dazzle. But Leonard was the complete package Rosina: elegant, imperious, coy; a viper, a coquette and a treat.

Opera impresarios and audiences are lucky: In Isabel Leonard, they are getting one of the most beautiful women extant and a very smart and talented singing actress.

Maurizio Muraro was Dr. Bartolo, putting on a clinic in Italian diction. Rodion Pogossov, our Figaro, did not have diction—but he had a wonderful voice and a wonderful spirit. Paata Burchuladze boomed it out there gloriously as Don Basilio. He did not show real Rossini style, however.

Almaviva was sung by the Mexican tenor Javier Camarena: assured and relatively virile. He grew tired and ragged at the end, but he had turned in a satisfying performance. Let me say that he is polite, too. This production has Almaviva enter through the opera house itself. Camarena brushed against my crossed leg, paused to whisper, “Excuse me,” then sang his opening lines.

Age does not wither The Barber of Seville, nor does custom stale this comic masterpiece, or just plain masterpiece. It is kissed with sunshine and genius, isn’t it?

TRUTH IN MUSIC

Under the auspices of a concert series called Transit Circle, an evening of Michael Hersch’s music took place in Merkin Hall. Hersch is an American composer born in 1971. He leads the composition department at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore. The opening piece on his New York program was After Hölderlin’s Hälfte des Lebens.

Hölderlin was a German poet who lived from 1770 (year of Beethoven’s birth!) to 1843. The composer, Hersch, often takes his inspiration from poets. He wrote his Hölderlin piece in 2000, and he wrote it for clarinet and cello. But he “dually conceived it” for viola and cello, as he says, and he “committed that version to paper in 2002.” It was the viola-and-cello version we heard at Merkin Hall.

Hersch can do a lot with just two instruments—I mean, two instruments that do not include a piano. One of his major works is Last Autumn, originally written for French horn and cello, also available in a version for alto saxophone and cello. Last Autumn is more than two and a half hours long.

The Hölderlin piece is about ten minutes, but it packs a serious punch in that period. Like many Hersch pieces, it is spare and intense. No note is wasted. Silences are plentiful and daring. The music is quiet, ominous, angry, anxious. So are any number of contemporary pieces. But Hersch seems to have something unusually important to say. There is not an ounce of pretense in his output. He gives the impression of pursuing the truth (no less).

The violist at Merkin Hall was Miranda Cuckson, founder of Transit Circle, and the cellist was Julia Bruskin. They played with the conscientiousness that the music before them deserved.

A TRIP TO FINLAND

One of the very best performances in New York last season was that of the Elgar Violin Concerto by Nikolaj Znaider and the New York Philharmonic, under Sir Colin Davis. May I quote myself? “I thought Avery Fisher Hall might levitate.” Znaider and Sir Colin partnered again in Avery Fisher Hall, this time with the London Symphony Orchestra. And this time their concerto was the Sibelius. The hall did not levitate.

It’s not that it was a bad performance. Znaider did some admirable playing, and so did the LSO. The orchestra’s sound was magnificent. But the concerto did not unfold with the inevitability you want. The first movement seemed to go from episode to episode. Moreover, there was more technical sloppiness than can be ignored: Znaider was often flat, and there was disunity between soloist and orchestra. The second movement—one of the most beautiful slow movements in all of music—was better than the first. And the third movement was okay. But this concerto of fire and ice never caught fire.

After intermission, Sir Colin led the LSO in a Sibelius symphony, the Second. I will pay possibly the highest compliment: You could forget the playing, forget interpretation and simply listen to the music. Sir Colin gave you Sibelius almost unfiltered. The Finale, marked Allegro moderato, was a little slow for my taste. Sir Colin emphasized the moderato. But the final pages brimmed with their extraordinary purposefulness.

As she was leaving, a woman said, “That was worth coming out on a rainy night for.” Absolutely.

Music & Opera

Immanuel Lutheran Church: Gwendolyn Toth & Dongsok Shin perform works by Mozart & Clementi as part of ARTEK’s The Art of the Early Keyboard Series. Nov. 3, 122 E. 88th St., gemsny.org; 8, $25.

Mary Flagler Cary Hall at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music: New York Festival of Song presents Joseph Thalken, Sam Davis & Peter Foley playing their own original music, as the first part of the two-part series NYFOS Next. Nov. 8, 450 W. 37th St., nyfos.net; 7, free.

Millenium Theatre: The Brooklyn Philharmonic, Children’s Theater Studio & others perform in an evening of Russian cartoon films with live music. Nov. 3, 1029 Brighton Beach Ave., Brooklyn, bphil.org; 7:30, $15+.