United Kingdom Mozart, Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro): Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of Royal Opera / Julia Jones (conductor). Broadcast live (directed by Rhodri Huw) to Cineworld Basildon, Essex, from Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, 10.9.2024. (JPr)
Looking back is a nasty habit I find, but the 50th year since I first saw a Covent Garden Marriage of Figaro is approaching. The cast then included Sir Geraint Evans as Figaro, Catherine Malfitano (Susanna), Agnes Baltsa (Cherubino), and Elizabeth Harwood (Countess). David McVicar had returned to refresh the sixth outing of his 2006 staging of Mozart’s opera at the start of the 2013/14 Royal Opera season and when I saw it then I wrote that ‘if anything they put on in subsequent months is better than this, it will certainly be something worth seeing!’ We watched in the backstage films how McVicar was back again this season and again I confidently predict that if anything at Covent Garden in 2024/25 approaches the quality of this performance (the production’s 100th apparently) – seen thanks to this cinema broadcast – it indeed will be something worth seeing!
(As I wrote in 2013) confusing plot notwithstanding, Marriage of Figaro remains ‘the perfect first opera’ (with one proviso, see later). For me, the score is possibly Mozart’s finest operatic achievement: it contains so much comedy, romance, jealously joy, envy, forgiveness and reconciliation, all set against some memorable tunes. With matters of illicit love, passion, social climbing, cross-dressing, alongside the responsibilities and inequalities of privilege, reflected by the haves and the have-nots (the servants), I never realised how much Richard Strauss’s 1910 Der Rosenkavalier owes to Marriage of Figaro. This is clearly deliberate on Strauss’s part and – amongst other parallels – Octavian is Figaro’s Cherubino (both young men interested in older women and trouser roles). The Marschallin, whose beneficence restores order as farcical heights are reached in Act III, is just the Countess doing much the same at the end of Mozart’s 1786 opera.
Marriage of Figaro is based on Beaumarchais’s 1784 play La folle journée, ou Le Mariage de Figaro, and his sequel Le Barbier de Séville (The Barber of Seville). The latter spawned Rossini’s great 1816 prequel in which Count Almaviva, with the barber Figaro’s contrivance, woos Rosina away from her old ward and would-be husband, Dr Bartolo. Beaumarchais continued their story and in Figaro, the Count is now married to Rosina but their marriage is in trouble because he is a philanderer. Figaro is now the Count’s valet, who is engaged to the Countess’s maid, Susanna, and the Count’s intended droit du seigneur conquest. Bartolo is seeking revenge on Figaro for stealing Rosina from him, with the help of the rather obsequious music-master, Don Basilio. Adding to the fun are Cherubino, a love-struck teenager, Marcellina, a blackmailing former duenna, Antonio, a drunken gardener and Barbarina, his young daughter. This is more than enough for a ‘folle journée’ and it all proves a crazy day indeed!
This is undoubtedly one of the classic opera productions of this generation and with the help of Tanya McCallin’s handsome and realistic designs and Paul Constable’s subtle lighting, McVicar updates the opera – in a recognisable Sir Jonathan Miller way and with an equally keen eye for detail – and sets it in ‘a French chateau in 1830’. Once again, the naturalness and believability of the acting and spoken dialogue was a highlight of this performance: the recitative had meaning and dramatic import worthy of any great Shakespearean comedy.
The overture is accompanied by onstage business, including an elderly maid (Jane Evers) mopping the floor and she will return throughout the opera, as well as take centre stage at the curtain call. Although the sets are undoubtedly showing their age, we first see a long, window-lined, gallery before Figaro and Susanna’s rather bare and (very) dusty soon-to-be bedroom moves smoothly onto the stage. The Countess’s own room is a little sparsely decorated but otherwise typical of the period, whilst the final act turns what has been ‘a hall in the castle’ into a suggestion of a garden to provide the backdrop for the mistaken identity denouement. This involves the Countess and Susanna disguised as each other and ends with the Count humiliated and begging his wife’s forgiveness.
Although I was listening through cinema loudspeakers, the excellence on the stage was once more matched by some fine conducting, this time from Julia Jones, and the near-perfect orchestral accompaniment from the on-form Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. Unlikely as it seems it was as though Jones and her musicians breathed new life into Mozart’s vibrant score making it the near-perfect commentary it should be on the action and the characters we watch. Although we were told how Mozart never wasted a note, for me – at well over three hours of music and with only one interval – it became rather bottom numbing and so do we really need all the aria repeats?
The Royal Opera fielded another multinational cast of singers for this opera. Whilst not all were the biggest names you could hear in their roles; with their evident vocal and acting talent, as well as, more importantly ensemble chemistry, this did not matter as much as it might had this Figaro not been as good as it was. Italian baritone Luca Micheletti was an engaging and charismatic Figaro, singing a rousing ‘Non più andrai’ and an anguished Act IV ‘Aprite un po’ quegli occhi’. He begged indulgence for being slightly under par, but it wasn’t noticed in his performance. For the ‘home team’ British baritone Huw Montague Rendall sang with a secure and focused tone, commanding the stage with imperious authority as a youthful Count who is used to always getting what – and who – he wants, until he doesn’t! Rendall’s Act III ‘Vedrò mentr’io sospiro’ was full of fomenting anger. Returning to this production Swedish soprano Maria Bengtsson – looking unnervingly like Celene Dion – was suitably downcast and affecting as the Countess with her Act III ‘Dove sono’ the composed and heartfelt summation of her unhappiness it must be. American mezzo-soprano Ginger Costa-Jackson was making a Covent Garden debut as a hyperactive, gawky Cherubino and in her case – and her case acting-wise alone – less might have been more; though that could be McVicar’s fault rather than hers.
Making a significant impression near the end of the opera, Chilean soprano Isabela Díaz – a current Jette Parker Artist – was a delightful Barbarina, proving once again how that role is a gift for a young singer at the start of their career. The ‘United Nations’ of singers extended to one of the splendid character vignettes in this excellent ensemble with Hungarian bass-baritone Péter Kálmán as Dr Bartolo. However, veteran British singers completed the principal cast: soprano Rebecca Evans was Marcellina (spoiler alert, Barbarina and Bartolo eventually are revealed as Figaro’s parents); tenor Adrian Thompson gave an eye-catching performance as a ‘fragrant’ Bartolo; bass Jeremy White was Antonio; with Alasdair Elliott as Don Curzio.
Last, but certainly not least, the undoubted star of the evening was Australian soprano Siobhan Stagg returning to Covent Garden as Susanna and replacing an indisposed Ying Fang. Stagg is a gifted actor-singer and a very engaging artist with a winning smile. She was the high-spirited catalyst for all the events of the opera and her Act IV ‘Deh, vieni, non tardar’ was tender and moving.
Jim Pritchard
Featured Image: Siobhan Stagg as Susanna © Clive Barda
Cast:
Figaro – Luca Micheletti
Susanna – Siobhan Stagg
Count Almaviva – Huw Montague Rendall
Countess Almaviva – Maria Bengtsson
Cherubino – Ginger Costa-Jackson
Bartolo – Peter Kálmán
Marcellina – Rebecca Evans
Don Basilio – Adrian Thompson
Antonio – Jeremy White
Don Curzio – Alasdair Elliott
Barbarina – Isabela Díaz
First Bridesmaid – Caroline Modiba
Second Bridesmaid – Miranda Westcott
Production:
Director – Sir David McVicar
Design – Tanya McCallin
Lighting design: Paule Constable
Movement director – Leah Hausman
Chorus director – William Spaulding
Fortepiano continuo – Mark Packwood
