The Marriage of Figaro Review – Daniel De Nes’s masterful direction marries elegance and fun | Opera

“Four boxes, six screens, four chairs and a tree”: the overall scenery for Wild Arts’ new English-language production of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro is modest by operatic standards. This show needs to travel light, as it is earmarked for performances in more than 20 arts centres, theatres, churches and parks across the UK over the next three months. But leave thinking about the logistics to the professionals — the miraculous thing about this The bare essentials of Figaro is how successful she is on set, especially since her director is completely new to the role.

Of course, Danielle De Nis isn’t just a first-timer. The Australian-born, Glyndebourne-based soprano star made her debut at New York’s Metropolitan Opera at the age of 19 as Barbarina in Mozart’s opera, and in the decades since she has sung the role of Susanna all over the world. Few directing novices can match this insider knowledge of this work and its characters.

The look of De Niese’s production is historical (a late 18th-century frock coat and corset-wearing man) but the action is straightforwardly modern, flamboyant, and just the right side of silly slapstick for a summer evening. The opera’s built-in gag of too many people trying to hide behind inadequate furniture is made much funnier on a small stage with limited projectors and an audience from all over the world sitting within arm’s reach. Cherubino escapes by apologetically throwing himself into the group of odd instruments. The Count and Countess furiously ignore each other as the latter takes a long, loud sip of tea. There are flapper gestures, comedic noises and an example of dad dancing. Most of the recitations go by. The stillness is fleeting, and only appears along clearly serious melodies.

This high-energy approach was matched by very fine and often catchy playing from the delicate ‘orchestra’ conducted by Orlando Jopling in his own arrangement of the score. It has also been perfectly designed to suit our dynamic and highly committed staff. If Timothy Nelson’s Count was more brutal and Elinor Rolfe Johnson’s Countess more intelligent than usual, their imaginary reconciliation during the Countess’s heartbreaking second aria was truly moving. Olivia Rae’s Marcellina was poised and elegant while Timothy Dawkins’ Bartolo talked about her time and time again. The tight, slightly metallic soprano Abby Ward shone in the role of Cherubino, William Searle was clearly having fun as Don Basilio and Don Curzio, and Eleanor O’Driscoll was a laughing Barbarina with a suitably bright voice.

Best of all were Jack Sandison’s Figaro – wonderfully polished and resonant – and Ellie Neate’s Susanna, who fearlessly indulged in speech in some dialogue but sang elsewhere with pure, fluid beauty. With ease and complete conviction vocally and dramatically, these two are undoubtedly on their way to much bigger stages. Catching them on such a small piece is among the real pleasures of this production.

· On national tour until September 27th