The new Royal Opera season opens with a revival, the manufacturing’s tenth, of David McVicar’s 2006 staging of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, performed by Julia Jones. As on many earlier events, McVicar has rethought and reworked it, rigorously moulding it to his new solid, and subtly shifting factors of emphasis. Huw Montague Rendall’s Rely, engaging if predatory, is extra insistently sexual, much less liable to violence than a few of his predecessors. We’re additionally extra conscious right here than prior to now of the Countess’s (Maria Bengtsson) attraction, albeit unacknowledged, to Cherubino (Ginger Costa-Jackson). Bartolo (Peter Kálmán) and Marcellina (Rebecca Evans) at the moment are finely rounded characters, humorous with out resorting to caricature. And also you’re extra acutely aware of the remainder of the Almaviva family, the servants and retainers, observing, reacting to and certainly, every now and then, collaborating within the central motion: simply sometimes, although, it now additionally appears fractionally too busy because of this.
There are some excellent particular person performances. Figaro and Susanna are performed by Luca Micheletti and Chinese language soprano Ying Fang. He’s good-looking, warm-voiced, morally conscious and liable to anger, squaring off with super dignity in opposition to Montague Rendall’s Rely, who appears tellingly afraid at occasions of this man he’s contemptuously lording it over. Fang, making her Covent Backyard debut, is a curiously reflective Susanna, much less instantly spirited than some, however the voice is gorgeous and Deh Vieni Non Tardar sounds beautiful in its sensual poise. Her silky tone is at occasions not in contrast to Bengtsson’s, so the subterfuges and mistaken identities of the ultimate scenes appear totally credible.
Bengtsson, an ideal artist, in the meantime, lays naked the Countess’s anguish of soul with understated depth, and is meltingly stunning on the finish as she forgives her husband. Quickly rising as certainly one of right this moment’s most interesting baritones, Montague Rendall is actual stage animal, who combines patrician finesse with dramatic fireplace. Costa-Jackson makes an interesting Cherubino, Evans’s Marcellina hides a touching vulnerability beneath all that brittle bravado, and Kálmán sounds actually imposing in his vengeance aria.
Jones conducts with fierce vitality and drive, however might every now and then maintain again extra. Dove Sono, as an example, propelled urgently ahead quite than nostalgically reflective, feels fractionally too quick. The orchestra is every now and then barely too distinguished, generally obscuring the voices, however the taking part in is constantly nice, and Jones is correct to position the emphasis on Mozart’s typically extraordinary powers of orchestration.
