‘Like old Gorgonzola’: Rossini stage set ditched after stinking up Vienna opera

People sit outside the Opera house in Vienna, Austria, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru) (Andreea Alexandru/AP)

VIENNA, Austria -- Vienna’s renowned state opera will have to make do with an old stage set for Friday’s performance of Rossini’s opera “The Barber of Seville” following complaints about “unpleasant odours” some likened to rancid cheese.

The move comes after last week’s production of Gioachino Rossini’s comic showstopper left some audience members puzzled and gasping for fresh air.

According to a report by the Kronen Zeitung tabloid, some spectators even left their seats after perceiving a pungent waft coming from the stage they said had the properties of “strongly matured cheese.”

“It smelled like old Gorgonzola,” an anonymous opera-goer was quoted as saying by the tabloid, which ran the lurid headline “This ‘barber’ stank to high heaven.”

A spokeswoman of the Vienna opera house said the smell came from large-scale coloured plastic stripes used in a 2021 production, which had unfortunately undergone “material changes” while in storage.

The transparent, curtain-like structures hanging from the ceiling -- designed by German director Herbert Fritsch -- act like frames on stage.

“During storage, material changes occurred which led to a very unpleasant odour,” spokeswoman Antonia Perko wrote in a statement sent to AFP, adding that there were complaints about the smell by the audience.

Perko however dismissed reports that “droves” of opera-lovers had left the opera house’s Valentine’s Day show.

But spectators needn’t worry about any odours on Friday night, since an old stage set from 1966 will be put on display.

The Vienna opera vowed to “rectify the material defect” together with the manufacturer, so the 2021 staging can be shown again in June.

The comic opera is best known for its catchy tunes that have entered popular culture, including the baritone’s aria in the opening scene, which features the repeated “Figaro, Figaro, Figaro!”