The Marriage of Figaro

Opera Australia

I have to make an admission. I had never heard Mozart's 'The Marriage of Figaro' in full nor had I ever seen a production of it prior to this week. I had some vague notions as to it's plot and knew that I was familiar with, maybe I should say had heard, several of it's most popular arias.

The opportunity to finally see/hear the work arose through my subscription to the Belvoir Theatre's 2012 drama season when they offered discount seats under some arrangement with Opera Australia. I already have a subscription to Opera Australia's 2012 season but mine does not include Mozart's opera and given that this offer was for A reserve seating at half the price of what I had paid for my subscription it seemed too good to pass up. I'm glad I went.

In case you have even less knowledge than I of the Opera, the essential story is that Figaro and Susanna (pictured above), both in the service of Count Almaviva, intend to marry but impediments include that the Count wants to have his way with Susanna; another character, Marcellina, wants to have her way with Figaro; the Countess wants her husband back and several others have romantic intentions of their own. As one expects in comedies all ends happily ever after but only following a series of misunderstandings, complications and in this case some gender bending callisthenics.

This production updates the action to modern times which didn't worry me given that I was so unfamiliar with it all anyway. Mozart takes his time relating the story. I gather there are cuts in this production but it still took three and a half hours to unfold. Clearly Mozart didn't have to worry that his audience would be racing home to view that night's episode of 'Neighbours' on television.

I don't have the musical knowledge to offer an informed critique but for those who prefer that level of assessment Marcellous fits the bill here.

The audience last night lapped it up giving the cast and orchestra a rousing ovation. I thought that Joshua Bloom (Figaro) and Taryn Fiebig (Susanna) were terrific in their roles. The set design was interesting with each scene change signalled by the set sliding across the stage from right to left. Although slightly creaky in its movement, the scene changes were a minor fascination all of their own as the set never backtracked the entire evening.

There is a strange (to me) trend in Opera nowadays to have singers drop down at some point to sing their lungs out whilst prone on stage. At different times, five (I think it was) of the singers last night sang in this position. It must be very difficult for them.