Evan Zimmerman
The primary time I noticed the Richard Eyre manufacturing of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, the revival of which is sporting a brand new forged from its opening final month, it immediately turned one in all my favourite new stagings on the Met. The visuals, due to designers Rob Howell (set and costumes) and Paule Constable (lighting), had been scrumptious: the balanced palette of paper lanterns burning orange in opposition to the blue night time sky, the rotating unit set someway wealthy with element (these Moorish architectural tessellations!) with out tipping over from ethereal to overbearing. Apart from some obscure and complicated moments within the opera’s finale, the units, blocking and enterprise all work collectively to make a good, genuinely humorous present.
I additionally had the obscure sense that updating the motion to the Nineteen Thirties, throughout rise of Spain’s fascist regime, helped make clear the aesthetics and sophistication distinctions for Twenty first-century audiences, whereas the Francoist setting retained the historic context—an aristocracy in decline, a Europe in turmoil—key to Lorenzo Da Ponte’s libretto and to the unique Beaumarchais play. However the fascist takeover of my very own nation helped me to appreciate, listening to the alternative forged on the Met on Saturday, simply how intently the political motion is tied to the themes of the opera: the vindictiveness of politically highly effective, sexually insecure males, and their makes an attempt to show their very own masculinity by controlling the our bodies of ladies.
The opera’s plot revolves round Rely Almaviva’s efforts to fuck his maid, Susanna, on the night time of her wedding ceremony to his servant, our hero, Figaro. You see, the Rely needs to RETVRN to the made-up custom of droit du seigneur—actually on the identical day that he’s additionally being feted for having nominally abolished the observe. Whereas attempting to cheat on his personal spouse, Rosina, he turns into obsessive about the concept that he’s being cuckolded by Cherubino, a candy however very sexy teen, so he tries to ship the boy off to warfare.
Evan Zimmerman
In the meantime, Marcellina will get Figaro’s previous enemy Bartolo to go together with her personal scheme, to power Figaro to marry her for nonpayment of an previous debt. (NOTE TO SELF: is that this a typical clause in mortgage contracts? Should keep in mind to learn fantastic print.) Via a collection of elaborate schemes and unlikely contrivances, Figaro and Susanna make certain all the suitable {couples} find yourself reconciled and/or married.
Figaro is unified and self-contained, starting within the morning and ending on the night time of the titular wedding ceremony, and so when the curtain rises we get to observe it waft by the air as mild as a bubble and simply as delicate. And earlier than it has an opportunity to burst, the curtain has already fallen, in order that we really feel that we’re watching a narrative that takes place in a universe miraculously freed from penalties. Almaviva is a creep, however what are you able to do? There’s a number of severe harassment within the libretto, however the coercion is finally impotent; Cherubino is threatened with conscription, however we don’t really see him despatched off to the entrance traces.
However in fact, the Figaro Prolonged Universe fandom—acquainted with FEU lore from the performs and operas previous and following this one—is aware of that the large image is way darker simply exterior of this body. We’re saddened by our reminiscences of Almaviva and Rosina as a pair of younger lovers, earlier than he was corrupted by lust, jealousy and energy, in The Barber of Seville.
Evan Zimmerman
And in The Responsible Mom, the entry Beaumarchais penned years after Mozart’s opera premiered, we’ll see issues get darker nonetheless, with Cherubino killed within the warfare and Rosina elevating his son because the Rely’s. This manufacturing brings just a bit of that darkness into the image, making Almaviva’s womanizing luridly express — the character we see through the overture is a servant lady working topless throughout the stage — and turning his bluster into precise, bodily brutality.
The weakest bits of casting within the revival’s new forged are its two leads. Luca Pisaroni offers Figaro precisely the darkness of hue, smoothness of tone, hanging attractiveness, and dignity of bearing that the character doesn’t require; and as Susanna, Rosa Feola’s heat, legato singing stuffed out the ensembles superbly. However neither of them had the fleet, humorous supply that sells the present, and his excessive notes tended to bellow. (Credit score the place due: she nailed “Deh vieni non tardar,” an aria well-suited to her phrasing.)
Fortuitously, it’s an ensemble present, and so they all performed effectively collectively. Jacquelyn Stucker and Adam Plachetka every introduced an excellent tone to their respective vocal performances. In an exhilarating Met debut, she performed a profoundly depressing Countess Rosina—a reducing, plaintive edge to her voice that made even a surprisingly brisk “Dove sono” emotionally wrenching—and he introduced precisely the fitting combination of menace and buffoonery to Almaviva.
Evan Zimmerman
A set mishap additionally afforded him one of the best ad-lib, and one of many largest laughs, within the present. Within the scene the place the Rely makes an attempt to lock his spouse’s lover in her room, he stormed again to the door, decided to disclose her lover in his hiding place—at which level Plachetka found that the door he had simply “locked” had someway swung open of its personal accord, fully ruining the gag. With out lacking a beat, he mugged broadly on the viewers, letting us in on the irony, earlier than delivering his subsequent line: “Tutto è come io lasciai!” (The whole lot is simply as I left it!)
It’s not going to be information to any of you faggots who noticed the beautiful Emily D’Angelo within the promo pictures for Grounded that she has the requisite physicality for a convincing flip as an underaged himbo twink. By no means having heard her carry out reside, nonetheless, I used to be pleasantly shocked by how successfully she interprets the position of Cherubino on each degree. Within the double-reverse-drag scenes, when Rosina and Susanna force-fem the child on some screwball comedy pretext, she’s not solely humorous—clopping across the stage like she doesn’t know find out how to put on heels—she’s horny; and her vocal assurance and artistry give the boy the swagger befitting the hero he’s in his personal thoughts.
Elizabeth Bishop and Maurizio Muraro had been Marcellina and Bartolo, respectively, disappearing fully into completely calculated comedian performances. Bishop was particularly pleasant, each element of her vocal and stage efficiency timed and executed in service of the character and the comedy.
Evan Zimmerman
Lastly, a particular point out of Jazmine Saunders, making her Met debut within the slight position of Barbarina, Cherubino’s girlfriend. Although she solely pops in on the piece within the final two Acts, Barbarina is frankly cute and Saunders performed her with a voice vivid as a bell and a smile to match. I’ll be excited to listen to extra from her—I see that she’ll be singing Clara in Porgy & Bess quickly.
Down within the pit, issues often appeared a bit uncontrolled, as if conductor Joana Mallwitz needed to push a little bit, Pisaroni and Feola needed to pull a little bit, and many others. I’m on #TeamJoana right here; I believe her tempi would have been a lot funnier and extra enjoyable. Throughout the overture, a high-speed impediment course for the strings, they did sound a little bit too frantic, and there was a nasty brass crack, however y’know, no person’s nerfect. Howard Watkins performed a enjoyable and flashy fortepiano continuo through the recitatives, and whereas I’m advised that the unique instrument on this half would most likely have been a harpsichord, I really like the sound of the fortepiano sufficient that I’m not complaining.
And I really like this Figaro. This can be a manufacturing that has come to really feel like residence to me and one which I’m fast to advocate to any novice who says, “What can be a great first opera on the Met this season?” I’m glad I had an opportunity to return to it this spring. And I hope to see it once more beneath happier circumstances.
