Ah, The Marriage of Figaro, without a doubt one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's greatest achievements. It is the sequel to Il Barbiere di Siviglia, where the Count Almaviva courts and wins the beautiful Rosina. As is typical with a farce, time and space do not apply in any way, shape, or form, and all 21st Century ideas are to be left at the door as they do not apply here either.
We meet three familiar characters, Figaro, Count Almaviva, and Rosina, now the Countess. We also meet Figaro's fiancee Susanna. Add to the mix a hormonal teenage page boy named Cherubino, a jealous middle-aged woman named Marcellina, and a typical sassy teenager named Barbarina, and you have a perfect recipe for madness.
This classic farce is hard to describe in my typical detail-heavy style. I will explain it simply. Figaro is now the Count Almaviva's valet. He is engaged to Susanna, the Countess Almaviva's maid. On their wedding day, Susanna tell Figaro that the Count has made advances towards her and wants to reclaim the feudal right which permitted the lord of the manor to have adulterous sex with the bride of his servant om the wedding night. Figaro hatches a plan to fool the Count, which blows up in his face. Susanna and the Countess hatch a plan that succeeds. Suffice it to say, in the end the Count repents, the Countess forgives him, and everyone lives happily ever after. But not before a whole day of ridiculous hijinks that in real life would drive the average person insane.
This was another Richer Eyre production. He seems to have have an affinity for sets that move on turntables and updating the stories. We saw these in his productions of Carmen and Il Trovatore. And he does it again here. He updates the story from 18th Century Seville to 1930's Seville. The set is still an 18th Century mansion and it has a lot of Moorish influence.
Leading the cast were bass Ildar Abdrazakov (Number 11 on my Top Favorites list), and soprano Marlis Petersen as the titular couple. In the roles of the Count and Countess Almaviva were baritone Peter Mattei and soprano Amanda Majeski. And singing the part of the hormonal Cherubino was mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard (who, by the way, will be returning in three weeks to sing the role of Rosina in The Barber of Seville). What a stellar cast. I can't say anything that will do justice to the singers at all.
The highlights of the opera have to be Figaro's big aria at the end of Act 1, the Countess's plaintive entrance aria which opens Act 2, and Cherubino's antics. I have to say Isabel Leonard as Cherubino juist plain stole the show. Whether he's singing about getting heart palpitations around every woman he sees, or being disguised as a girl, Cherubino is a joy and a delight, despite whatever the Count thinks of him. It's even more hilarious when you consider the fact that Cherubino is a trouser rrole for mezzo-soprano, so in some scenes we have a girl playing a boy playing a girl (your head may now explode).
A big "Bravi" to the entire cast.
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UPDATE: I goofed; it was Sir David McVicar did the current Met production of Il Trovatore.
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