A David McVicar production practically guarantees creativity and excitement and this maverick director’s 2006 Royal Opera Figaro magnificently fulfills the bill. While it’s true this Figaro has several innovations - updating the time to 1830s France, some men in top hats, servants all around (like in his Manon, eavesdropping), a strong emphasis on sexuality and the Count’s violent nature - what truly makes the Figaro memorable is the synergy, the chemistry McVicar has brought out in the acting and vocalizing, and in the pit from conductor Anthony Pappano. This is simply the best of the half dozen DVDs I have seen of this masterpiece.
Buy,Download, Or Stream Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro! Click Here
McVicar has displayed how successful he is in this regard in his compelling Rigoletto and Manon (I haven’t seen his Magic Flute and Giulio Casare and I had mixed feelings about his Carmen). Here too, the ensemble, the interrelationships between characters, the personalities of the protagonists are so strongly etched. This is the most theatrical, physical, earthy Figaro I have ever seen.
In his notes to the DVD, McVicar downplays performers’ emphasis in Figaro on “rococo charm,” but if not rococo, this production has no lack of charm when called for. And a Figaro without charm is not a complete Figaro. Conversely, McVicar’s ample toughness and darkness are also appropriate, since the opera has many moments of seriousness, duplicity, mistaken identity, confusion and hearts being broken.
Buy,Download, Or Stream Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro! Click Here
There are many moments to savor in this production, and McVicar’s rethink of certain events is largely treasurable. The sarcasm between Susannah and Marcellina in Act one doesn’t drip it flies, it pours. Delicious! Their interaction at the end of Act 2 I’ve never seen more powerfully done. The servants overhearing a good deal of the opera’s proceedings lends a most interesting and appealing aspect to this mad day, a sense that the Count’s time, his control, his power, are coming to an end. So too do the very noticeable blemishes on the walls of the Count’s chamber, a wonderful touch as to the decay, the crumbling of his world.
Erwin Schrott is a dark and sensual Figaro, powerful and more rebellious when called for (Beaumarchais’ play was indeed revolutionary) than any other I have seen, and he sings beautifully. Miah Persson cuts a lovely swath and brings out all the charm and strength of Susanna. Gerald Finley is a nasty, dominating Count, his baritone richly resplendent (interestingly, he looks a lot like Schubert here). Rinat Shaham’s Cherubino is utterly compelling with both a kittenish charm and a masculine presence. These four command the stage yet interact superbly with the others.
The strong voiced Countess of Dorothea Roschmann has many lovely moments although on occasion her voice can become stressed and turn hooty. Philip Langridge’s wildly creative and funny Basillio practically steals the show in Act 4, if his aria can ever do that (as the Witch in the Metropolitan Opera’s simulcast of Hansel and Gretel, he also brought a wonderful daring and fun wickedness to that role). Jonathan Veira’s voice is fine and his wonderfully bulging eyes have to be seen in Bartolo’s Act 1 “la vendetta.”
Pappano brings out ample does of vitality and warmth in the pit from his Royal Opera forces, bending generously to his singers wishes when needed and giving a masterful interpretation. He is an ideal match for McVicar’s creativity, his full-of-life production.
Act 4 is notoriously difficult to bring off totally, with characters in a garden supposedly being hidden and overhearing others without being seen. Few productions totally convey this and McVicar’s doesn’t entirely either. A few leaves falling and some trees don’t establish a garden when there are indoor items - tables, chairs, partitions, still present on stage. This takes away from plausibility. But Jonathan Haswell’s cameras do a good deal to alleviate this problem and make the interactions fairly secretive and compelling. The Jean-Pierre Ponnell/Karl Bohm film, not actually a very good Figaro, nonetheless has the best Act 4 scenery wise, with a full garden and appropriate hiding areas.
When I want to watch a Figaro now, I will turn to this performance. My previous favorites (1994 Glyndebourne with Haitink, Finley (as Figaro), Fleming and Hagley, and 1994 Lyon with Paolo Olmi, Furlanetto, Szymtka and Watson) are excellent but this takes precedence, for its theatricality, vision and superb acting and ensemble.
One strength of this Covent Garden production is that it puts equal emphasis on acting, stage movement, and singing (which only works when the latter is of high quality which it is here). Credit goes to David McVicar’s directing for successfully combining all these features. He even uses the overture to highlight the class distinctions of the characters, as servants go about doing their work (and comically avoiding their work) in perfect time to the score.
Erwin Schrott, as Figaro, has a rich and deep baritone voice that literally booms out, but is flexible enough for the lyric demands of Mozart. He combines this with great acting. In fact, such is his focus on acting that he tends to speak his recitative. It sounds strange to the ear at first, but he has such a larger-than-life charismatic stage presence that, when combined with his superb singing, the speaking simply becomes Schrott’s way of making the role of Figaro his own.
Miah Persson (Susanna) possesses a beautiful soprano voice, but she’s not a natural comedienne and doesn’t have a strong stage presence. The latter is only a problem because Susanna is the dramatic link to all the characters (another way of saying that she’s really the star of the opera). I thought Persson was not quite up to the task. Mozart gave Susanna only one stand-and-deliver aria: “Deh vieni.” Persson gives a beautifully nuanced performance of this exquisite song of hope and longing. She deserves the close-up camerawork she’s given throughout the aria.
This is the second DVD featuring Dorothea Roschmann as The Countess (Salzburg’s 2006 being the other). As always, her creamy soprano voice is rich and expressive. In particular, her “Porgi, amor” is performed with great pathos and is deeply moving.
Gerald Finley is excellent as The Count, appropriately brutish and dense at the same time. His baritone voice has deepened and matured since he played Figaro in the Glyndebourne production from 1994. His voice harmonizes beautifully with Roschmann’s. Their work together in Act II is a highlight of the production.
The supporting cast is excellent, led by Rinat Shaham who sings Cherubino’s two arias with exuberance and the sweetness of youth.
The major drawback to this DVD is uneven sound quality. It must have resulted from the placement of the microphones around the stage. There are times in arias and ensemble pieces when voices predominate but then suddenly fade away and all you can hear is the orchestra. It’s very frustrating to listen to when this happens.
My favorite “Marriage of Figaro” on DVD remains the Theatre du Chatelet production conducted by John Eliot Gardiner, featuring Byrn Terfel as Figaro and Alison Hagley as Susanna. This is a matter of taste, but I prefer the more lighthearted approach of the Chatelet production, focusing as it does on the farcical nature of the plot (mistaken identities, etc.). This Covent Garden production focuses on the sexual tensions in the plot, resulting to a large extent from the characters’ class distinctions. For example, Susanna’s and Marcellina’s brilliant first act duet, “Via resti servita ” takes on a downright hostile tone in this production. I prefer the hilarious “trash talking” version in the Chatelet production. (Alison Hagley remains my favorite Susanna on DVD; she also plays the role in the Glyndebourne production from 1994 that features Gerald Finley as Figaro.)
I highly recommend this Covent Garden production and understand why many have given five stars to McVicar’s more serious interpretation of this great opera.
Compare Car Insurance On Line
Low Auto Insurance Rates
