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Festive Figaro’s a crowd pleaser
MARRIAGE OF FIGARO
English National Opera
The English National Opera is adept at choosing yuletide crowd pleasers. I’m excited at the prospect of Bernstein’s On the Town there next year, but there is no harm in a seasonal stalwart like Figaro.
Its soap-meets-farce plot is convoluted. A robust, lively translation by Jeremy Sams (we get a few bloodys and bastards here and there) oils the comedy.
It’s a typical ENO production, sumptuous, slick, clean and accomplished – with clever witty sets and hybrid contemporary 1930s costumes.
It is Mozart at his most sparkling so all you have to do is sing it well to pull it off. This cast perform admirably.
Mark Stone is a dashing, imposing Count Almaviva, acting the role beautifully and matching his intelligent grasp of the drama with some lovely diction and a full bodied baritone.
Marie Arnet’s coquettish Susanna was also a pleasure, with a flighty, soaring soprano. Lisa Milne’s Countess was occasionally rather too much vibrato for me but Johnathan Lemula is a cuddly Figaro with a powerful, rangy voice.
Roland Boer conducts a delicately vigorous orchestra that adroitly balances with the singing while Yanni Thavoris’s sets and Bruno Poet’s lighting add unusual and occasionally highly original and humourous touches.
This is director Olivia Fuchs’s debut at ENO and with surtitles the laughs flow aplenty. A lovely production.
Until Nov 23
CNJ booking line: 0870 040 0070
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