The opera features music director Maestro Nicola Luisotti on the continuo as he accompanies the recitatives with spontaneous bursts of musical humor and conducts the orchestra from a significantly raised pit.
Lithuanian bass-baritone Kostas Smoriginas and American soprano Heidi Strober are a well-matched leading couple as Figaro and Susanna.
Soprano Ellie Diehl appears as Countess Almaviva (aka Rosina) alongside baritone Trevor Scheunemann as Count Almaviva. Mezzo-sopranos Michèle Losier and Catherine Cook bring much charm and talent to the roles of Cherubino and Marcellina.
By poking fun at the aristocracy, the story indicates a turning of the social tide in Europe in favor of the working class. It also portrays romantic love as being equally sublime and absurd—a running thread in several of Mozart’s operas—with a ridiculously complex plot that thickens by the minute.
Figaro and Susanna are both servants in the household of Count Almaviva and plan to marry. Everyone seems to have a crush on Susanna, including the count himself, who, according to feudal customs, has certain “privileges” with regard to the females in his employ.
Also, Figaro cannot wed Susanna until he has managed to pay off his debt to a wealthy matron named Marcellina, who could become his wife as stipulated in their original loan contract.
Then there is the count’s page, young Cherubino, who falls in love with every woman he meets and who happens to be currently infatuated with the boss’s wife, the countess. The opera is one big comedy of errors, complete with accidental eavesdropping, mistaken identities, and practical jokes.
Woven into the absurd humor is the poignant story of the countess, who once believed in true love when she married the count, but whose heart has been broken by the count’s many amorous adventures.
The story comes to a head when the lawyer shows up with legal papers ready to force Figaro into marriage with Marcellina—clearly old enough to be his mother—as repayment of his debt.
A remarkable aspect of the opera is that Mozart’s phenomenal musical genius comes through surprisingly intact in contrast to the tongue-in-cheek frivolity of the whole story. One could justly call this an orchestral masterpiece, but then again, the title would fit most anything Mozart wrote past the age of 12.
Chorus Director Ian Robertson, as usual, brilliantly led the chorus. In the trouser role of Cherubino, Michèle Losier gave a masterful rendition of the opera’s most famous aria “Voi che sapaete” (You Ladies Who Know). The striking sets were the work of Zack Brown in 1982 and were apparently inspired by the paintings of Francisco Goya.
This Marriage of Figaro is director John Copley’s 30th collaboration with the company, recognized on Sept. 21 with the San Francisco Opera Medal—the highest honor awarded to an artistic professional.
