Hardly a Marriage of True Minds the Marriage of Figaro Lpo/Vladimir Jurowski Britten Sinfonia/Nicholas Daniel Hhiii
Summary
English National Opera's new staging of The Marriage of Figaro may be this country's final major production of the Mozart anniversary year, but it's not exactly climactic. One of the greatest and most perfect of operas, Figaro is funny and dangerous, and neither of those adjectives could honestly be applied here. Yet not all is lost: Olivia Fuchs has supplied ENO with a staging that with a little tweaking will prove easily revivable, and higher musical standards should do the rest. Already the line-up announced for January's re-run looks more appealing.
All opera begins in the pit, and Roland Ber's conducting casts a pall over everything. Considering his excellent La Clemenza di Tito last year, this is surprising, but Figaro's pace is very different and there are drama-killing lapses as he switches from baton to fortepiano accompaniment in the recitatives.See the full content of this document
Extract
Hardly a Marriage of True Minds the Marriage of Figaro Lpo/Vladimir Jurowski Britten Sinfonia/Nicholas Daniel Hhiii
Fuchs's staging - her most high-profile assignment to date - moves the action forward to an English country house of the 1920s, where the upstairs-downstairs tensions work well. Service bells ('Smoking room', 'Nursery' and so on) l...
See the full content of this document