Regulars at Grimeborn will be familiar with the superbly crafteed and dramatically original interventions by the Ensemble Orquesta Company in Baroque Opera. They have now moved into the later eighteenth century to tackle Le Nozze di Figaro. I attended with great anticipation of how they would interact with such a familiar work, and my high expectations were mainly met. This is an original take on the most familiar of operas, one of the hardest things to bring off.
There is a minimalist appraoch to the setting – set and and props are kept to the indicative minimum, and even costume mostly operates in a monochrome set of tones until the marriage scenes. The focus is very much on maximising space for movement, and developing an easy, naturalistic narrative flow. In a particularly nice touch the back story of Figaro’s birth is enacted during the overture, which helps to elucidate the plot considerably.
As always in reviewing this ensemble, one has to stress the enormous contribution of the hugely talented Marcio da Silva, who not only sings Figaro, but directs the production, arranges the reduced orchestration, and compiles the very detailed and rewarding programe notes. He has placed his mark on this production in a very distinctive way, that is mostly stimulating and thoughtful. This is a much darker take than usual, played with great intensity, incisive vocal delivery and highly expressive acting. There is rather less humour than usual, and while it is always useful to look below the frothy surface at the darkness narrowly avoided, some more light and shade would have been welcome at points.
Da Silva is ably supported for the most part. Helen May has a very fine evening as Susanna, riding the waves of intrigue with serene confidence and vocal dexterity. She exudes both warmth and a hard edge as needed to make her portrayal and leadership wholly convincing. Oshri Segev is also on excellent form, finding both cold command and a veiled menace in the count’s part and bringing both qualities together to good effect in his aria at the start of Act 3. Anna-Luise Wagner finds the rashness and the lover in Cherubino, singing with both urgency and accuracy, and developing some excellent comic business along the way. Flavio Lauria and Rosemary Carlton-Willis are a fine double act as Bartolo and Marcellina, plausible as both former lovers and comic foils; while Joshua Furtado-Mendes is convincingly suave as Basilio, Tara Venkatesan displays winning charm as Barbarina, and Jay Rockwell makes a lot more of the gardener’s role than many do. Kieran Staub conducted ably, while scampering from podium to keyboard continuo with aplomb; and his players, drawn from the Hastings Philharmonic Orchestra, acquitted themselves very well both as a cohesive group of string and wind players and in collective support of the singers. This was just the right size of band for the space.
However, on press night there was one significant problem that has to be discussed. Hollie-Anne Clark. playing the Countess, was indisposed and was only able to walk the role. Elinor Rolfe Johnson sang the part superbly from behind the piano, delivering two of the most sensitive versions of ‘Porgi Amor’ and ‘Dove sono’ that I have heard in recent years; but in the complex ensembles of the later acts there were inevitably some difficult moments of coordination and a lack of overall dramatic coherence that no amount of over-compensation by others could dispel.
How often I wish that press nights were later in the run! I am sure that by the end of the sequence of performances at Grimeborn this production will have settled into the familiar groove of carefully considered excellence that is customary with this admirable ensemble. However, one can only review what happened on the night; and in Mozart above all, where the realistic interplay of character is fundamental, indisposition, while no one’s fault, did make a difference.
Composer: W.A.Mozart
Libretto: Lorenzo Da Ponte
Director: Marcio da Silva
Conductor: Kieran Staub
Cast: Rosemary Carlton-Willis, Hollie-Anne Clark, Joshua Furtado-Mendes, Flavio Lauria,Helen May, Jay Rockwell, Elinor Rolfe Johnson, Oshri Segev, Marcio da Silva, Tara Venkatesan, Anna-Luise Wagner
Until 31 August 2024
3 hrs with interval
Photo Credit: Peter Mould