Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro (Cambreling)

Introduction

Mozart`s opera from 1786, based on Beaumarchais`s sequel to `The Barber of Seville`, performed by the Opéra national de Paris earlier this year.

I`m going to shy away from a complete synopsis, as it`s just to damn difficult to write one in a couple of paragraphs.

Briefly, the action from 18th century life has been updated to a very peculiar 20th century registry office/wedding outfitters. All the familiar characters from the original story have therefore also been updated. There can therefore be no Count or Countess (seemingly transferred to the registrar and his wife?), and so all other characters seem a little out of place, or completely anachronistic, based on the original idea.

But..the story remains the same, in that the `Count`s` servant, Figaro, is due to be married to his sweetheart Susannah. The `Count` though has other ideas, and is determined to reinstate the ancient feudal privilege of `Le Droit de Seigneur`, despite already being married to Rosina (the `Countess`), this marriage being helped along enormously by Figaro in the previous Beaumarchais story.

Several things lead to several more things, and both the `Count` and Figaro are suitably chastised by their respective wives for either not trusting them, or for trying their damndest to play away from home (not in Figaro`s case of course).

Video

The video quality is very impressive, and despite not being one of the Opus-Arte high-definition camera recordings, is as clear we would like. The camera direction though is a bit of a nightmare, quite often flicking so fast between shots that you often lose the ability to read the subtitles and it also seems to interfere with the music. One or two fairly wide shots of the stage would have sufficed, but this has obviously got something to do with the very odd production, with completely superfluous action on stage. More on that later.

Audio

The sound is very good indeed, especially in DTS mode. There is very little problem with balance between stage and pit (something of an obession with me), but the stage direction often means characters are placed behind doors/glass partitions and so become a little too quiet in some ensembles.

Features

The main extra is an hour-long `film` by Reiner E. Moritz, in which there is some explanation (not at all convincing) on why the production is why it is, and plenty of excerpts from the performance.

With this we, have an `essay` by Moritz withing the accompanying booklet, an illustrated synopsis, cast gallery and subtitles in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian.

Conclusion

The whole production (apart from the singing and playing) is a disaster. First of all, I am not at all convinced by the on-stage `recitativist` (though ably played and acted by Jürg Kienberger). The extra character just gets in the way, and the `comedy` sounds which he has been asked to perform are just embarrassing.

I`m always wary of lines such as `Mozart himself would surely have appreciated this` (the extra music played by Kienbergeras as descibed within the booklet). I`m really not sure that this sort of arrogance holds water. I`m also not sure about the almost sit-com sounds which Kienberger has been asked to perform while on stage, using various instruments and his own voice, passing as the more conventional harpsichord in the pit, which just gets in the way of the action. If this is something that the director, Christoph Marthaler, believes that Mozart would have approved of and which attracts more people to opera, then he is very much mistaken.

As for the updating of the action to `present day` then it has been done far more successfully elsewhere. The single set of the registry office is not at all convincing, making much of the narrative incomprehensible and we therefore lose most of the emotional power of the story. There are also some blindingly strange dramatic moments, especially when Cherubino is supposed to leap out of a window, accompanied by a scream from Susannah. He justs walks out of a door backstage, and so all the musical drama is lost.

I won`t go on about that any more, as it`s not worth it.

Musically though, despite the constraints and oddities of the direction, things are far more satisfactory.

The orchestra plays very well indeed, despite Sylvain Cambreling`s matter-of-fact interpretation.

Lorenzo Ragazzo (Figaro) does a sterling job (although with one facial expresion whe he sings) and it`s great to see him in this role following his fine Leporello in `Don Giovanni` (also reviewed here).

The rest of the cast are fine, and it`s a welcome change to have the `extra` arias from Marcellina (a good, if sometimes breathless, Helene Schneiderman) and Don Basilio included, but I would have preferred not to have had the audience participation in Marcellina`s aria.

Susannah (Heidi Grant Murphy) isn`t at all bad, although can sound a little shrill at times, and Christiane Oelze (the `Countess`) does a great job with `Porgi, amor`, but isn`t helped by Cambreling during `Dove sono`.

Having Christine Schäffer as `Cherubino` is fantastic, although she is supposed to be a young teenage boy, yet obviously has a voice which is equal to, if not better than, the two `proper` female leads, and Peter Mattei is one of the best Counts I`ve heard `live`.

I`ve tried re-writing this a few times, only because I thought I needed to be nicer, and try to understand the production more, but after three attempts, I`m afraid that I have to say this is not the DVD for you if you want to enjoy this opera. Not because of the musical performances (bar the `hilarious` recitative moments), but because the production is a disaster (even worse that the WNO `Cosi` I saw a couple of years back), and even if you keep your eyes shut, the on-stage antics with the recitativist, together with the tasteless stuttering Curzio, will spoil everything.