Style.com has first dibs on the costume designs Azzedine Alaïa has come up with for the LA Phil's forthcoming Marriage of Figaro. Christopher Maltman and Dorothea
Röschmann as Count
and Countess Almaviva will wear the outfits sketched above.
The Countess's dress is reminiscent of Alaïa's signature skintight knits, as seen on Megan Fox below - bet Dorothea won't be touching any doughnuts for a while. The Count's suit marks a departure for the designer, who normally steers clear of menswear.
| | |
|
Glyndebourne's new production of Le nozze di Figaro received some ecstatic reviews when it opened at home base a couple of months ago. In front of a capacity audience, the transfer to a Proms semi-staging didn't fare so well.
| | |
|
The Institut français in South Kensington is to screen two operas from the Aix-en-Provence festival live in their purpose built cinema, aka the Ciné lumière.
Le nozze di Figaro is at 8.30pm on Thursday 12 July. George Benjamin's new opera Written on Skin, which receives its world premiere at Aix, is at 4pm on Saturday 14 July.
Both are priced at £15, with various concessions available.
As far as I know, this will be the only opportunity to see these shows in the UK. It's possible that festival sponsors Arte TV may stream either or both online, but nothing has been announced yet.
| | |
|
Le nozze di Figaro - Royal Opera House, 14 February 2012
Oops. David McVicar's finest production isn't as bulletproof as it once seemed. This time round, coarse revival direction and subpar casting have diminished its subtlety and psychological insight.
| | |
|
The Marriage of Figaro - English National Opera, 5 October 2011 (first night)
In Fiona Shaw's new ENO production, Barbarina, bottle in hand, is pissed as a fart from start to finish. She even throws up in a corner at one point. Would she really go for Cherubino or the Count otherwise, Shaw seems to be asking. Like a Geordie lass on a Friday night, Shaw thinks it's the beer goggles that make Barbarina such an easy target for her randy suitors. She allowed Mary Bevan to turn this usually throwaway role into something worth watching.
But more importantly Shaw points to a whole new direction in Mozart interpretation. What if Donna Anna succumbed to Don Giovanni because she was three sheets to the wind, and only chucked him out when she sobered up? What if Dorabella and Fiordiligi warmed up with a few beers before grabbing the 'Albanians' - whose disguises they were too plastered to twig? What if the entire field of Mozartian female morals could be explained away as an anatomical response to booze? Has Fiona Shaw opened up a can of Fosters here?
| | |
|
Le nozze di Figaro - Haus Für Mozart, Salzburg, 30 July 2011
Claus Guth's cinematically-inspired 2006 production sets Figaro in funereal Bergmanesque monochrome. Hitchcock's The Birds is referenced in the dead crows and autumnal leaves littering the bare rooms. It looks more like a particularly scary The Turn of the Screw than a Mozart comedy.
Continue reading "Salzburg's nozze di Figaro gets the bird" »
| | |
|
Le nozze di Figaro - Opera Holland Park, 2 July 2011 (first night)
Liam Steel's new production of Le nozze di Figaro gets a Downton Abbey update to early 20th century England, with Figaro himself an unnervingly camp Jeeves-like butler/fixer. Otherwise it's remarkably similar to David McVicar's Royal Opera House production, right down to the fussy clutter of underlings in every scene.
| | |
|
At last - up to date production photos for the current run of Le nozze di Figaro at the Royal Opera House.
Here's the main reason to catch the show - Erwin Schrott as Figaro:
| | |
|
Le nozze di Figaro - Royal Opera House, 31 May 2010 (first night)
Just some hit and run impressions from the first night before I embark on a solid week of opera. This latest revival of David McVicar’s 2006 production doesn’t always deliver the goods vocally, but the casting couldn’t be bettered theatrically. Back in person to direct (he left the last revival to someone else), McVicar has tweaked and tightened the dramatic screws. The master-servant relationship is more effectively defined than ever before, and the shenanigans of the final act much easier to follow.
Continue reading "Le nozze di Figaro at the Royal Opera House" »
| | |
|
Le Nozze di Figaro - Royal Opera House, 2 July 2008
I usually prefer to go to shows on opening night. On the downside, there may be little problems that will get ironed out later on, and first night nerves may mean singers aren't at their technical best. But the Royal Opera House generally allocates enough rehearsal time to make 'settling down' redundant.
The real difference between the first show and the later ones is that performers are always conscious of walking a tightrope between triumph and failure, and the fear of tanking it first time round can introduce a frisson that may not be recaptured in later shows. Anyone who's seen the difference between a final rehearsal and the opening show will know exactly what I mean.
This night was mid-run, and although every aspect of the performance ran as slick as greased owl pewp, there was an indefinable lack of sparkle. That's not to say it it was in any way flawed or disappointing, just easier to admire than to love.
As far as individual performances went, it was yet another occasion this season that the bus pass brigade have snaffled the performing honours from the hot young thangs. Tonight it was Robin Leggate's deliciously camp Don Basilio, Robert Lloyd's gravely comic Bartolo and Ann Murray's feisty Marcellina who made the most impact.
Kishani Jayasinghe's spirited Barbarina could have been up there with them and further, but her otherwise lusciously creamy voice developed a scratchy cast towards the end. Nothing more than a touch of tiredness I hope - not only does she perk up every production I've seen her in, however small her part, she also has the makings of a truly memorable voice.
The big revelation was Anna Bonitatibus. She's already shown her versatility recently in London in the poles-apart roles of Zerlina at the Barbican and the low-mezzo Medoro in Handel's Orlando at the ROH. And here she made an utterly convincing Cherubino, all knock knees and unmet eyes. Her crystalline vibrato-free tone was convincingly boyish, definitively Mozartian, and her Voi che sapete was the moment of the night.
She outshone Aleksandra Kurzak's sparky Susanna and Barbara Frittoli's dignified Countess, even though they were perfectly judged, and evenly enough matched for the element of conspiratorial sisterhood to ring true.
I warmed more to Peter Mattei's baffled and put-upon Count than Ildebrando D'Arcangelo's manipulative Figaro, despite D'Arcangelo's dense velvety ear-caressing tone. That's partly a function of David McVicar's subtly dark production, which plays with the audience's sympathies in a rather more even-handed way than usual.
Superficially, it's conventional enough for the fustiest of audiences, with its period look and very literal adherence to text. Although it doesn't skip any of the comedy (all of which is genuinely funny here, not remotely teeth-gritting), he doesn't shy from exposing the self interest of the protagonists at every moment either, and the undercurrent of rumbling discontent, the lower orders rattling the bars of their cage, is more than usually apparent.
Talking of bars, I was seriously impressed that certain thirsty orchestra members managed to survive the 90 minute second half without a rest break after their copious interval refreshments at the White Lion. But then again, perhaps it contributed to the relaxed, unhurried sound Charles Mackerras drew from them. Despite his unrelentingly furious pace, there was wit and charm in abundance, and the finely-nuanced response of the orchestra does them great credit.
It says a lot for production standards that the only blemished performance was canine. The Count's 'hunting dog' (though he looked more like a slipper-chewer to me) entered tail-first, tugged at the leash for his minute on stage, and danced a circle of joy the second he was released back.
I do love animals, especially with gravy, but as ever if [insert composer] had really wanted a [insert species] in [insert opera], don't you think he would have written a part for one?
| | |
|
Recent Comments