The Marriage of Figaro

Composer: Mozart Director: Blanche Mcintyre Conductor: Christopher Stark

English Touring Opera, Hall for Cornwall, Truro, on 13 March; then touring until 9 June (englishtouringopera.org.uk) Running time: 2hrs 55mins (including interval)

The centrepiece of English Touring Opera’s spring is a lively new Marriage of Figaro that opened last month at the Hackney Empire, and is now off on a mammoth 21-venue tour. Its principal strength is the clarity it brings to a narrative that “can be confusing even for the work’s most ardent” fans, said Tim Ashley in The Guardian. The downside is that it’s “occasionally short on humour and sadness”: it doesn’t quite capture the opera’s “full emotional range”.

I thoroughly disliked aspects of Blanche Mcintyre’s staging, said Mark Valencia on What’s On Stage – in particular the “arch and empty” dumbshow during the overture, where the performers enter in civvies and change into costume. Still, the fine singing and “zingy reading” of Mozart’s score are immensely pleasurable. “For the good of your ears, go.” The pick of the performances comes from Rachel Redmond as Susanna, said Rupert Christiansen in The Daily Telegraph; her glowing account of Deh vieni, non tardar is the evening’s vocal highlight. Ross Ramgobin as Figaro has the same “freshness and charm” as Redmond, while Dawid Kimberg and Nadine Benjamin as the Count and Countess Almaviva meet their third-act musical challenges admirably – although it would be nice if they loosened up a bit.

Prominent in the publicity for this production is the boast that the cast largely comprises black and minority ethnic performers, said Richard Morrison in The Times – a “reasonable selling point”, given how rare it is to see one non-white face in a British opera production, let alone seven. However, it would be a shame for this show to be hailed for its ethnic mix, rather than its fine musical qualities. The conductor, Christopher Stark, best known for “presenting thunderous contemporary scores” in a Peckham car park with his Multi-story Orchestra, is a rising star. Here he shows how “elegantly” he can shape Mozart, coaxing “beautiful textures from his players and pacing the arias perfectly to showcase the mostly young cast”.