A perfect match for Figaro ...
OPERA ROUND UP
Le Nozze Di Figaro (Royal Opera House)
WheN The Marriage Of Figaro is presented like this, with a wellmatched cast of singing actors, there is no better comedy in opera.
A lot of the credit goes to John eliot Gardiner, conducting with attention to detail and keeping the music moving. The great Act 2 finale has rarely seemed so funny and delightful.
Central to the action are baritones Christian Gerhaher, as Figaro, and Simon Keenlyside, as his master the Count. For the first time in my experience the randy teenager Cherubino is sung by a countertenor, Kangmin Justin Kim.
Julia Kleiter makes a fine debut as the Countess, Joelle harvey is a pert Susanna and Diana Montague, Maurizio Muraro, Jeremy White, Yaritza Veliz and Jean-Paul Fouchecourt all contribute well-observed cameos.
Rusalka (Glyndebourne Festival Opera)
ONLY rarely do we get the chance to hear Antonin Dvorak’s most gorgeous opera score, a variant of the classic mermaid myth.
Melly Still’s production sticks fairly closely to the original; so the water nymph Rusalka, who falls for a human prince with tragic consequences, has a long fishy tail before being turned into human form by the witch Jezibaba (Patricia Bardon).
This revival introduces a superb tenor — American evan LeRoy Johnson, just out of the Curtis Institute — as the Prince. Sally Matthews is a heart-rending, waif-like Rusalka ( singing some of the loveliest music in Czech opera.
her father, the water sprite, is well portrayed by Alexander Roslavets and another Russian, Zoya Tsererina, is ideal as the foreign Princess. Robin Ticciati conducts the LPO idiomatically.
Noye’s Fludde (Theatre Royal, Stratford East)
IT WAS typical of Benjamin Britten’s genius that he could take a 15th- century Chester mystery play and make it his own.
It all comes alive in Lyndsey Turner’s production, with God (Suzanne Bertish) telling Noah ( Marcus Farnsworth) to build an ark.
It is funny, heartwarming and splendidly staged, with suitably naive designs by Soutra Gilmour and Oliver Jeffers — and lasts just an hour. Well worth the trip to this lovely old theatre.