United States Mozart, The Marriage of Figaro: Chorus and Orchestra of LA Opera / James Conlon (conductor). Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles, 19.2.2023. (JRo)
Co-production: La Opera & Théâtre des Champs-Elysées
Libretto – Lorenzo Da Ponte, after the play by Beaumarchais
Director – James Gray
Associate Director – Gilles Rico
Sets – Santo Loquasto
Costumes – Christian Lacroix
Lighting – York Kennedy
Chorus Director – Jeremy Frank
Choreography – Kitty McNamee
Cast:
Figaro – Craig Colclough
Susanna – Janai Brugger
Count – Lucas Meachem
Countess – Ana María Martínez
Cherubino – Rihab Chaieb
Doctor Bartolo – Kristinn Sigmundsson
Marcellina – Marie McLaughlin
Don Basilio – Rodell Aure Rosel
Antonio – Alan Williams
Barbarina – Deepa Johnny
Don Curzio – Anthony León
Stolen kisses, billets-doux, mistaken identities and Mozart are the honeyed components of The Marriage of Figaro. Add to the combination an exemplary new staging at LA Opera, in a co-production with the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, and the delights are manifold.
The manufacturing feels impressed by the fêtes galantes work of Antoine Watteau and the Spanish idylls of Francisco de Goya. Costume designer Christian Lacroix, set designer Santo Loquasto and director James Gray have created a pleasant world honoring Beaumarchais’s imaginative and prescient, da Ponte’s libretto and, above all, Mozart’s music.
With an enthralling curtain that illustrates commedia dell’arte characters, the huge house of the Dorothy Chandler felt extra like an intimate theatre. From the brief presto introduction to the emotionally charged conclusion, the rating was within the delicate and positive arms of James Conlon and the LAO Orchestra. To enter Mozart’s musical world guided by Conlon is to savor all that’s nice within the human spirit.
The Beaumarchais play was considered a portent of the French Revolution: it leveled the lessons by spoofing and hobbling the aristocracy. Never has ‘below and above stairs’ been so radically portrayed as within the play and in Mozart’s opera, the place servant outwits grasp, thwarting by way of intelligent machinations his proper of droit du seigneur. Just as radical was Mozart’s perception that girls have been extra developed than males. The maid servant, Susanna, and her mistress, the Countess, are united of their intention to disclaim the Count his feudal proper to sleep with Susanna on her wedding ceremony night time, and their class variations are eradicated of their sisterly concord.
Musically and dramatically the Susanna of Janai Brugger and the Countess of Ana María Martínez have been a well-matched pair as they confided, connived and altered locations to show their inferiors, Figaro and Count Almaviva, some crucial classes. Martinez’s heat, lyric spinto counterpoised Brugger’s glowing soprano, culminating within the rapturous letter duet. Martinez introduced a fascinating fragility to the Countess. Although she started slowly with the lament ‘Porgi amor’, her voice and dramatic expertise grew in poignancy and stature with Act III’s ‘Dove sono’. Brugger’s wide-eyed presence and comedian timing spoke volumes about her good sense, loyalty and sensuality as she flirted along with her betrothed, Figaro, or repelled the advances of Almaviva. Her tender facet was on show in her shining Act IV aria, ‘Deh vieni non tardar’.
With Lucas Meachem’s Count, the opera was served by a robust baritone of imposing stature. His bodily commanding presence made him a threatening determine and emphasised the predatory nature of a sexually-entitled aristocrat. His portrayal served the comedy of manners as he railed, cajoled and barreled his approach by way of a day within the lifetime of his workers and uncared for spouse. No mere cardboard character, his humanity got here to the fore on the finish of the opera. Meachem made the many of the second as he begged the Countess for forgiveness in a poignant duet.
Figaro, sung nimbly by Craig Colclough, performed the a part of the commedia dell’arte clown with relish. In flip fanciful, farcical and befuddled, his scheming Figaro was extra a creature of circumstance than a puppeteer pulling the strings. His posturing was harking back to Jacques Callot’s seventeenth-century etchings as he bowed, scraped and rocked on his heels. It was a pleasant portrayal, made memorable by his ripe and versatile baritone in Act I’s ‘Non piu andrai, farfallone amoroso’.
Rihab Chaieb was an ardent Cherubino, extra the decided boy than hapless youth, who mined the bodily attributes of the adolescent male for max humor. Her silky mezzo-soprano shined within the tender ‘Voi che sapete’. Kristinn Sigmundsson as Doctor Bartolo was a pleasure to look at, a storybook character come to life, hovering over and round Marie McLaughlin’s adept Marcellina as he sang ‘La vendetta’ in his darkly-shaded bass.
Rounding out on the forged have been Deepa Johnny as Barbarina, who made her LAO debut as Eliza in Omar and is a singer to look at; Rodell Aure Rosel as Don Basilio, who mined the function for max comedy; Alan Williams because the gardener, Antonio, who inadvertently foils Cherubino; and Anthony Leon because the lawyer, Don Curzio.
Nowhere is the glory of Mozart’s incomparable rating extra evident than within the remaining ensemble. After a lot agitation, contentment settled on the principals like fairy mud and, if just for just a few treasured moments, the world appeared in steadiness.
Jane Rosenberg