Bravo for the bad guy in a fine Figaro
The Marriage Of Figaro (Royal Opera) Verdict: A jolly good show ★★★★★
OF THE three masterpieces Mozart wrote to libretti by Lorenzo Da Ponte, Le Nozze Di Figaro has to be the funniest: the end of Act 2 is one of the most hilarious half-hours of music in opera.
David McVicar’s 2006 production seems to get better each time and this revival has a splendid, virtually all-Italian cast, so that the recitatives and ensembles snap, crackle and pop like an operatic cereal. With an Essex-born Italo-American driving it all along, you are in for a great evening.
Usually in 18th-century comedy the action is carried by the servants, but though we have a fine Figaro in Riccardo Fassi and a pert Susanna in Giulia Semenzato — both expert in comic timing — their employers turn the tables for once.
Statuesque Federica Lombardi is a wonderful Countess Almaviva, really touching in her two great arias with superb control of a lovely voice; and Argentinian baritone German E. Alcantara is a magnificently menacing Count, constantly frustrated in his schemes.
Gregory Bonfatti’s primped and poisonous Don Basilio is the best I have seen since the heyday of Robert Tear, while Monica Bacelli and Gianluca Buratto make a monstrously ridiculous couple as Marcellina and Bartolo.
Polish mezzo Hanna Hipp is believable in the trouser role of Cherubino, singing well and slotting naturally into the jigsaw; Jeremy White has a high old time as gardener Antonio; and on Tuesday Helen Withers stepped up nicely to take over the part of Barbarina from the indisposed Alexandra Lowe.
Antonio Pappano made a heartfelt speech, dedicating this revival to Bernard Haitink’s memory, then kept the action bubbling beautifully, bringing out Mozart’s subtle, sinuous woodwind writing and relaxing just the right amount for the arias.
In our turbulent age, a performance such as this restores one’s faith in the human capacity to create pure happiness through co-operation.