The Marriage of Figaro review

It’s a comedy with a dense, swiftly moving plot that is notoriously tricky to articulate. Yet David McVicar’s production of Mozart’s opera remains marvellously lucid and surefooted.

Set around 1830, rather than in the pre-French Revolutionary period – the work dates from 1786, just three years before the fall of the Bastille – it’s closely observed: a high-definition realisation of a hierarchical (and in some respects still feudal) society, in which the various classes live and work together at Count Almaviva’s castle Aguas Frescas near Seville.

Subtly lit by Paule Constable, Tanya McCallin’s sets and costumes are a triumph, providing a handsome visual context for the large cast’s richly detailed presentation of a microcosm of European society in a specific historical phase.

This is a true ensemble show, with no weak links anywhere; but there are several memorable standouts. Chinese soprano Ying Fang makes her company debut as Susanna, her voice, combining sweetness with brilliance, the secure bedrock of the vivacious stage personality that she draws. Just as eye-catching is Luca Micheletti’s vigorous Figaro, whose much-delayed marriage to Susanna lies at the epicentre of the intrigue: his characterful, tensile baritone provides a firm foundation for an interpretation based on the Count’s manservant thinking on his toes, if not always getting everything right.

Getting almost everything wrong, meanwhile, is Huw Montague Rendall’s Count Almaviva, his plans for Susanna’s seduction repeatedly falling apart due to a cross-class coalition between his wife and their servants. The rising-star baritone brings to the part a consistently meaningful approach to text, and an imaginatively conceived physical acting manner that succeeds on every level.

His neglected wife, whose forgiveness of her husband’s unfaithfulness brings Mozart’s score to its sublime close, is sung by Maria Bengtsson, whose lissom soprano encompasses not only the Countess’ vulnerability, but also her ultimate strength. 

Continues…