9 August 2026
The Marriage of Figaro was the first of three collaborations between Mozart and his librettist Lorenzo da Ponte and when it premiered in Vienna in 1786 it took the city by storm. Not only because of the beauty of the music or the sprightliness of the text but because of the daring subject matter. Now, on stage, audiences could see as much time and care devoted to the downstairs affairs of the servants in a grand house as had always been given to the upstairs amours of their social superiors. In addition, those same audiences might have observed that the servants, in addition to being human, were rather quicker and more resourceful than the masters. At one point Count Almaviva says members of his household are ‘audacious by nature’ and he speaks more truly than he knows.
Anyone who’s seen Danielle de Niese on stage will know the brio she brings to her performances and she imparts a similar zest to her first stint as director for this travelling production of Figaro, part of Wild Arts’ Summer Opera Tour 2026. It’s a simplified, refined production, with a reduced team of musicians conducted by Orlando Jopling (who with de Niese has produced a new translation of the libretto), a scatter of props and an inevitable trimming of the chorus scenes.
Don’t imagine, though, that this some cheese-paring presentation. The costumes – some on loan from Glyndebourne – are splendid, the singing is full-hearted and immediate, and the narrative flows to its happy conclusion by turns which are touching, melodramatic or absurd, and sometimes all three at once.
Susanna is key, because the the Count has decided to exercise his droit de seigneur – a feudal ‘right’ which he had previously disclaimed – before her wedding to Figaro, the Count’s personal valet.
Learning of this the couple must use all their wiles to fend off their entitled master. This they manage, of course, and at the same time they help to redeem the faltering marriage of the Almavivas.
Ellie Neate brings warmth and watchfulness to Susanna while Jack Sandison provides an assured Figaro.
Timothy Nelson’s irascible Count is positively alarming at times but somehow hapless with it; even so he reminds us that underneath all the comedy there lurks a real threat to characters we care about. The Countess (Elinor Rolfe Johnson) makes a convincing transition from forlorn wife to a woman who has by the end achieved some control over her destiny. There is a particularly effective moment when the lights dip for a moment during her famous Dove sono aria as she imagines her husband returning, lovingly, to her.
Strong support is provided by a chameleon Cherubino (Eleanor O’Driscoll) as well as Timothy Dawkins, doubling as the scheming Bartolo and the very regional gardener Antonio. Olivia Ray (Marcellina), William Searle (Don Basilio) and Harriet Cameron (Barbarina) complete an excellent ensemble.
The opera ranges across a spectrum of love and desire, from the formless passion of Cherubino, prepared to love any and every woman he sees, to the excited anticipation of Figaro and Susanna on their wedding day, through to the well-worn marriage of the Count and Countess or the belated wedding of Bartolo and Marcellina, a union made out of a sense of propriety and the need to tidy things up. By the end we have moved beyond the immediate excitements of the marriage preparations, so brilliantly suggested in the bustle of Mozart’s overture, to the aftermath. To loyalty, trust and forgiveness.
Can the Count remain faithful? Will Figaro and Susanna live happily ever after? In real life, perhaps not. But in the world of Mozart, as in the not dissimilar world of Shakespeare’s comedies, perhaps they may…
★★★★★. Philip Gooden, 10 August 2026
Photography credits: Eleanor Church, Lucy J Toms
