This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD

Filmed at the Paris Opera with a cast including the great Mozart figures of our time, Giorgio Strehler’s legendary production is now available for the first time on DVD and Blu-ray.

Any reprise of the Strehler Nozze di Figaro has to be a major event. And in 2010, thirty-seven years after its première, the work met with a fresh triumph at the Opéra Bastille, featuring a new generation of performers: Ludovic Tézier (Count Almaviva), Barbara Frittoli (Countess Almaviva), Ekaterina Siurina (Susanna), Luca Pisaroni (Figaro) et Karine Deshayes (Cherubino).

As musical director Philippe Jordan reveals the Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris at the height of their powers.

And as a bonus: an interview with Humbert Camerlo, who worked for many years with Giorgio Strehler and was the stage director for this reprise.

PRESS REVIEWS:
“Strehler’s Figaro shines again” THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

“Fine Cast Revives Strehler’s Treasured Nozze di Figaro Production” OPERAWARHORSES.COM

Director: Don Kent
Bonus: Interview with Humbert Camerlo
Length: 178 min - Image: Coolor, 16/9, NTSC
Audio: PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.0
Subtitles: French / English / German / Spanish / Italian

Also available on Blu-ray

'A marriage of distinction. An energetic, fresh-voiced cast...Teddy Tahu Rhodes and Taryn Feibig were a vivacious, appealing pairing...vocally strong and agile' (The Australian)

'As the Countess, Rachelle Durkin mixed statuesque hauteur with girlish puppy love...refined phrasing and beautifully poised tonal control' (The Sydney Morning Herald)

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD

'A marriage of distinction. An energetic, fresh-voiced cast...Teddy Tahu Rhodes and Taryn Feibig were a vivacious, appealing pairing...vocally strong and agile' (The Australian)

'As the Countess, Rachelle Durkin mixed statuesque hauteur with girlish puppy love...refined phrasing and beautifully poised tonal control' (The Sydney Morning Herald)

Recorded at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in June 2004, this Le nozze di Figaro was unanimously acclaimed by public and critics alike as a Mozart opera landmark. Director Jean-Louis Martinoty brings an elegantly intelligent narrative sense to an interpretation in which the protagonists, against a backdrop of magnificent canvases of 18th-century inspiration, are dressed by Sylvie de Segonzac in a palette in which every shade is perfect. Hans Schavernoch’s set suggests an elitist society that is coming apart at the seams. René Jacobs’s conducting of Concerto Köln is meticulous and perfectly balanced, offering a ravishing use of tonal colour and orchestral dynamics. A veteran Almaviva, the excellent Pitero Spagnoli plays opposite Annette Dasch’s beauteous Countess. As Figaro and Susanna, Luca Pisaroni and Rosemary Joshua are a truly sparkling couple, while mezzo Angelika Kirchschlager embodies the most divinely troubling of Cherubino. The exceptional quality of this production, and the great success encountered by its first edition, inevitably led to the remastering in high-definition of this program, now and for the first time also available on Blu-ray.

Recorded at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in June 2004, this Le nozze di Figaro was unanimously acclaimed by public and critics alike as a Mozart opera landmark. Director Jean-Louis Martinoty brings an elegantly intelligent narrative sense to an interpretation in which the protagonists, against a backdrop of magnificent canvases of 18th-century inspiration, are dressed by Sylvie de Segonzac in a palette in which every shade is perfect. Hans Schavernoch’s set suggests an elitist society that is coming apart at the seams. René Jacobs’s conducting of Concerto Köln is meticulous and perfectly balanced, offering a ravishing use of tonal colour and orchestral dynamics. A veteran Almaviva, the excellent Pitero Spagnoli plays opposite Annette Dasch’s beauteous Countess. As Figaro and Susanna, Luca Pisaroni and Rosemary Joshua are a truly sparkling couple, while mezzo Angelika Kirchschlager embodies the most divinely troubling of Cherubino. The exceptional quality of this production, and the great success encountered by its first edition, inevitably led to the remastering in high-definition of this program, now and for the first time also available on Blu-ray.

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REVIEW:

Everything about this production is excellent, so much so that is quickly become my favourite DVD version, and not just among the period performances, it not only offers an excellent singing cast, but it is well acted with all the participants actually looking the part as well as comfortable in bringing out he humour in their roles, something that some performances forget. If you are looking for a well sung performance of this masterpiece, one that is sympathetic to the spirit of the opera, well look no further.

– MusicWeb International

Also available on Blu-ray

Perhaps no opera is closely and affectionately associated with a single house as Le nozze di Figaro is with Glyndebourne. Effortlessly witty yet shot through with pain and sadness, this deeply ambivalent life in the day of masters and servants as they scheme and outwit one another was Glyndebourne’s opening production in 1934. Michael Grandage’s staging is the seventh, set in a louche Sixties ambience. Marshalled by the ‘ideal pacing’ of Robin Ticciati, a youthful cast of principals has ‘no weak link’ and ‘looks gorgeous’ (The Sunday Times) in a production that continues Glyndebourne’s rewarding history of engagement with Mozart’s and da Ponte’s ‘day of madness’.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
LE NOZZE DI FIGARO

Countess Almaviva – Sally Matthews
Figaro – Vito Priante
Count Almaviva – Audun Iversen
Susanna – Lydia Teuscher
Cherubino – Isabel Leonard
Bartolo – Andrew Shore
Marcellina – Ann Murray
Don Basilio – Alan Oke
Antonio – Nicholas Folwell
Don Curzio – Colin Judson
Barbarina – Sarah Shafer
First Bridesmaid – Ellie Laugharne
Second Bridesmaid – Katie Bray

Glyndebourne Chorus
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Robin Ticciati, conductor

Michael Grandage, stage director

Recorded live at Glyndebourne Festival, June 2012

Bonus:
- The Greatest Opera Ever Written
- From page to stage

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: LPCM 2.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, French, German, Japanese, Korean
Running time: 180 mins
No. of DVDs: 2


FULL REVIEW
Despite some qualification, Glyndebourne’s new Figaro (summer 2012) is a delight. The curtain opens during the overture on the outside of a Spanish mansion—just what we might expect from an opera set on the outskirts of Seville—with shiny tiles, Moorish arches, and handsome latticework, and townsfolk bustling back and forth. It’s startling to see a circa late-1960s red sports car pull up and have the Almavivas get out: they’re coming home from somewhere or settling into their summer getaway. The Count is the very picture of not-such-great-taste, sporting a page-boy haircut and costumed in a velvet suit with bell-bottomed pants and a wide-lapelled, multi-colored shirt. He obviously is quite a swinging dude, and director Michael Grandage and his wonderful designer Christopher Oram have placed the opera in the decade of the flower children. Will this work?
We meet Figaro and Susanna, dressed more moderately (she would appear to be pregnant in a black outfit with white collar, but it’s never mentioned) and nicely familiar. She is spunky and he seems like a nice guy, and he certainly doesn’t like the fact that his boss wants to sleep with his fiancée, although she seems able to take care of herself. And why should Figaro like it? This is the 1960s or ’70s, and despite the fact that Franco is still in power, the Count’s request is not a feudal right; it’s nothing but bullying. And so Beaumarchais’ and da Ponte’s satire on class war no longer exists, and that tends to be the crux of the opera in its original setting.
Instead, we get the never-ending battle of the sexes, a look at an unhappy marriage, and a rather nasty, wealthy guy with a sense of entitlement along with a pretty good comedy peopled by what seem like real people. During “Non piu andrai”, which Figaro sings while the Count is present, the two men hang out like chums, Figaro leaning with an arm on the Count’s shoulder. Susanna never curtsies and she seems genuinely concerned with cheering up the Countess. If you’re willing to forego the pre-Revolutionary subtext, you’ll have a fine time, especially watching the cast do the twist at the wedding and during the finale. The absolutely natural stage action eschews slapstick and vulgarity and the singers seem more than happy to adapt. Vito Priante’s Figaro, shorn of class anger, is a bit mild, but his stage presence and singing are extraordinary. Rhythmically precise throughout, he eats up “Aprite un po’…” in the last act and is superb in ensembles. Lydia Teuscher’s Susanna is a rich-voiced, non-soubrette, observant Countess-in-the-making; and of course, within this context she might some day have the same social standing. Sally Matthews, if she had a trill for the end of “Dov’e sono”, would be a perfect Countess: her predicament is very clear, and you sense that she wishes she were more lighthearted, more able to adjust to the swinging attitudes going on around her. The voice itself is a gorgeous, full lyric. Audun Iversen’s Count is a sloppy, privileged tyrant, all the more frustrated because no one will pay any attention to his nastiness. His singing is the least neat of all, but he’s a powerful presence. Isabel Leonard’s Cherubino is perfect—boyish and sassy and nimble.
Class acts Ann Murray and Andrew Shore, both a bit vocally worn, are nonetheless a terrific Marzellina and Bartolo, and Alan Oke’s Basilio is snidely right-on. (Neither he nor Marzellina get their last-act arias.) Sarah Shafer is a fine Barbarina, looking to be about 14 years old. And as mentioned, Oram’s luxurious sets add to the special feel of the production. I’m somewhat stumped by Robin Ticciati’s conducting of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. The instruments are period but the approach is mid-20th century—not slow or heavy, really, but somehow lacking the zip we expect these days. The finale of Act 2 is wonderfully clear but lacks the “accidental” mania it should have. There are plenty of laughs from the Glyndebourne audience, but the whole affair is not the insane day Mozart envisioned. The preferred DVD versions are Pappano’s from Covent Garden (Opus Arte) and Jacobs’ (on BelAir); nonetheless, this new one is fresh and charming and a good bet.
-- Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com

MOZART Le nozze di Figaro • Sylvain Cambreling, cond; Heidi Grant Murphy ( Susanna ); Christiane Oelze ( Countess ); Christine Schäfer ( Cherubino ); Lorenzo Regazzo ( Figaro ); Peter Mattei ( Count ); Helene Schneiderman ( Marcellina, Barbarina ); Roland Bracht ( Bartolo ); Burkhard Ulrich ( Don Basilio ); Frédéric Caton ( Antonio ); Paris Natl Op O & Ch • BBC/OPUS ARTE 960 (2 DVDs: 192:31)


Contrary to appearances, not every Mozart film released in 2006 and 2007 was connected to the Salzburg Festival’s attempt to film all his theater works in one season. This particular film, though recorded at the Palais Garnier in Paris in 2006, nevertheless documents the same Christoph Marthaler production that garnered some grumbles at the Salzburg festival in 2001, with much the same cast and conductor. In the interest of presenting all the works in fresh productions, Peter Ruzicka decided to replace this production with a less “experimental” one, a film of which has already been released in the complete M22 DVD box and will be available separately in summer 2007. One guesses that the delay in the release of that newer production was designed to capitalize on the star power of its principals, including Dorothea Röschmann, Bo Skovhus, Christine Schäfer, and the Susanna of Anna Netrebko, opera’s golden girl of the moment. Some speculated that replacing the Marthaler production amounted to admitting its failure. Many of the initial press releases greeting this 2001 production, seen as part of Gerald Mortier’s swansong as festival director (his departure was warmly welcomed by the conservative Austrian press), focused on its “dreariness,” the fact that Cherubino (then as now played by Christine Schäfer) has a fetish for women’s undergarments, and the Countess is an alcoholic. In the New York Times , Bernard Holland doubted whether Mozart’s conception had survived all the funny business (it is updated to a present-day retail bridal and tailor establishment).


In fact, and with the hindsight of many Mozart productions that have wreaked far greater havoc with the text, this production is an engaged, enjoyable, well-sung (on balance), and highly recommendable version. The chief, obvious objection of many viewers will be to how the recitatives are treated. Instead of the expected harpsichordist, Marthaler employs a roving musician, a “recitativist” in his words, to perform the keyboard recitative accompaniments on a variety of instruments. Jürg Kienberger plays this part (in Paris as in the Salzburg original), wearing oversized Elton John glasses, wandering around on stage, and occasionally interacting with the principals. In most cases he uses a portable Casiotone (or the equivalent) held by a neck strap, and set either to a harpsichord stop or, strangely, to wind stops (clarinet, bassoon). Elsewhere, he employs an electric guitar, mouth organ, accordion, glass harmonica, or even tuned beer bottles (Stiegl brand, Salzburg’s own). The Swiss Kienberger, who has a long-standing collaboration with Marthaler in spoken theater as well as in opera, occasionally also employs his voice and lip buzzes to comical, cartoonish effect at cadences, imitating muted trumpet or kazoo, and, on one exit, yodeling. Some of these interludes are conventionally effective, some aptly comic, others just as often inappropriate and distracting. The end effect, though, is that the “recitativist” emerges as an important player in the ensemble, to the extent that Marthaler gives him extra things to do. Between the third and fourth acts, Kienberger performs the Lied der Trennung , K 519, on glass harmonica, and sings another song in falsetto as a melancholic parody ( Die Alte , K 517). Clearly, this “recitativist” would be a deal-breaker for those seeking conventionality in their Mozart. I find it entertaining and stimulating, chiefly because Kienberger maintains a balance between stage presence and remaining in the background, but also because it presents a fresh twist on the routine of this ubiquitous opera.


The star of the youngish cast is certainly Peter Mattei’s winning and energetic Count, tall, swaggering, shading his dark baritone authoritatively from a suave, heroic brightness to an incisive menace. Mattei is also a constantly engaged actor, rendering his character’s bluster and discomfort realistically, notably during much of act III, when he must watch the pleasures of the other characters without having opportunity to respond. He is matched by Lorenzo Regazzo’s gruff but firm-voiced Figaro. Regazzo has less range of color and acting nuance, but remains constantly engaged, and would shine the more brightly were Mattei’s performance less athletic and dynamic. Interestingly, his Figaro is the only one of the “male” characters (Cherubino included) who is not bespectacled most of the time.


Less contrast is shown on the female side of the cast. A typically pert Susanna, Heidi Grant Murphy’s soprano is often shrill and wispy, though she warms markedly by the final act, her “Deh vieni” warm toned and affecting. She also employs some impressive breath control in shaping her recitatives in the third act. Christine Oelze is a lightweight Countess (particularly by comparison to Angela Denoke, who originated the role at Salzburg), the bright edge of her tone constantly threatening to drift upward without ever actually doing so, She succeeds in projecting the underlying melancholy of the role in her two arias, but hers is actually a Susanna voice, so much so that it would be difficult to tell her apart from Grant Murphy in the last act were it not for the visual.


By contrast, the richly textured voice of Christine Schäfer (Cherubino) is a marvel, her command of boyish pubescence astonishingly natural and unforced, her phrasing a model. But, she is a soprano assaying a part usually undertaken by mezzos; the bright coloration of her voice contributes to the general brightness of the female cast. Fortunately, all of the principals intensify and refine their performances vocally and dramatically as the evening progresses, so a timbral sameness that I found problematic at the outset does evaporate.


The Marthaler/Cambreling approach offers a relatively complete text. Both Marcellina’s and Don Basilio’s act III arias, usually cut, are presented, delivered directly to the audience as broadsides (with Helene Schneiderman actually urging the audience to clap along with her verses).


Among the strengths of Marthaler’s production is its motivic use of images. For instance, a lectern is employed as a podium for the more public utterances of the noble characters. Roland Bracht’s Bartolo, portrayed as an academic, delivers his act I “vendetta” aria almost like a conference paper, pausing occasionally to sip from the water conveniently placed at the lectern. Later, the Count steps up to the lectern whenever he needs to assert his authority or make thunderous pronouncements, though, thankfully, Marthaler employs it sparingly once the basic idea has been established. Sylvain Cambreling’s conducting is sometimes rhythmically diffuse, accents blunted, tempos somewhat de-energized, resulting in a soft-grained and monochromatic texture. The energy does build, however, in the third and fourth acts, indicating that he is attempting to convey an overarching concept of intensifying pace.


The DVD package also includes an hour-long documentary, A Day of Real Madness , by Reiner Moritz, which features useful interviews with the cast, conductor, and director. Particularly interesting is the discussion of the use of the “recitativist,” which, in Cambreling’s view, is a way of mirroring Marthaler’s characteristic departures from dramatic convention in a way that a conventional keyboard continuo-player would not.


In terms of dramatic energy and cogency, and raw entertainment value, this Figaro holds its own with other recent productions. It is less mannered, more energetic, and even better sung than the Peter Sellars film. However, some of the updatings and the “recitativist” would make it a Figaro for traditionalists to avoid. They would be better advised to explore the John Eliot Gardiner version with Bryn Terfel and Rodney Gilfrey. Warmly recommended, nevertheless.


FANFARE: Christopher Williams
Picture format: NTSC 16:9 Anamorphic
Sound format: DTS Surround / LPCM Stereo
Region code: 0 (All Regions)
Languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian
Running time: 261 minutes

MOZART Le nozze di Figaro & • Sylvain Cambreling, cond; Peter Mattei (Count Almaviva); Lorenzo Regazzo (Figaro); Heidi Grant Murphy (Susanna); Christine Schäfer (Cherubino); Roland Bracht (Dr. Bartolo); Burkhard Ulrich (Don Basilio); Helene Schneiderman (Marcellina); Eberhard Francesco Lorenz (Don Curzio); Cassandra Berthon (Barbarina); Jürg Kienberger (Recitativist); Op National de Paris O & Ch • OPUS ARTE 6004 (2 DVDs: 250:00 + 59:43) Live: Paris 2006

& Bonus: A Day of Real Madness, documentary by Reiner E. Moritz

This splendid performance of Le nozze di Figaro was originally issued on DVD in 2006, and is here making its reappearance in Opus Arte’s “Essential Opera Collection.” As in the case of the Rigoletto from 2001, reviewed elsewhere, this designation is well deserved. Since this disc was fully reviewed by Christopher Williams in these pages when it was first released, I won’t retread the excellent detail of his review but only make some observations of my own.

First, the production by Christoph Marthaler is whimsical and truly funny. Back in the 1980s, I complained bitterly of Peter Sellars’s ridiculous updating and setting of this opera in a New York penthouse (like the Trump Tower) because so much of what was in the libretto—not only the stage directions, which for better or worse are very explicit because this was based on a play that had equally specific instructions, but also in the words of the recitatives and arias—was either ignored or completely contradicted by his almost consistently asinine setting. Marthaler has set nearly the entire opera in front of a marriage bureau, which has a certain relationship to the subtext of the opera (it is, after all, about marriage, fidelity, and whether or not one should ever marry for convenience or just for love), but even here there are moments, such as the riotous conclusion of act II or the final scene which is supposed to take place in the garden outside the Count’s abode, that just don’t work. Marthaler, in collaboration with conductor Cambreling, has come up with an amusing alternative to playing the secco recitatives on a harpsichord. They have invented a character called the “Recitativist,” a comedian-musician (Jürg Kienberger) who whimsically plays the recitative accompaniment on any number of instruments, including (at one point) a balloon with air escaping from it and, at another, by tooting on beer bottles that he drinks from to continually lower their pitch, sometimes humming along with them. This creates a very funny diversion to these otherwise dull moments, which is fortunate since Cambreling insisted on keeping all of them because they realized that this is where the real drama takes place, that the arias are just moments of reflection that stop the action.

As an overall production I much preferred David McVicar's contemporary staging given at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. Here, the opera was updated to 1830s post-Revolution France where “the inexorable unraveling of an old order has produced acute feelings of loss.” More to the point, the costumes are closer to the era of Beaumarchais’s play and the stage settings equally funny due to McVicar's sharp wit. The differences lie in the quality of the casts and of the recorded sound. In the Royal Opera video (Opus Arte 990), we are given strong vocal and acting performances by Erwin Schrott (Figaro), Miah Persson (Susanna), the Count (Gerald Finley), and Don Basilio (Philip Langridge). Dorothea Röschmann’s Countess is extremely well acted, but she doesn’t have the steadiest or most beautiful voice for the role, and the singing of our Cherubino (Rinat Shaham), Dr. Bartolo (Jonathan Veira), and Marcellina (Graciela Araya) is substandard. The recorded sound, however, is terrific, the microphone picking up orchestra and soloists with crisp, lifelike fidelity. In this Paris production, every single role from top to bottom is sung splendidly. Williams had a niggling complaint about the fact that Christine Schäfer, the Cherubino, is a soprano, and thus does not add variety to the ensembles but sounds a bit too much like the Susanna and Countess. This is true, but except for the very low notes in “Voi che sapete,” Schäfer sings and acts brilliantly, really looking like an adolescent, sex-drawn boy. My complaints about the cast here are small, mostly of baritone Regazzo as an almost consistently scowling, over-macho Figaro with a gorgeous voice but almost no inflection in his use of it, and of soprano Heidi Grant Murphy as Susanna, who sings beautifully but looks rather dowdy, something like Angela Lansbury in Murder, She Wrote.

More to the point, the sound recording and mix by Radio France is not consistently clear. The microphones seem to be a little high or a bit away from both soloists and orchestra, with the result that everyone sounds a little reverberant most of the time. Once in a while, the principals walk right under the microphone—it seems to have been set up a little to stage left of center—and then sound marvelous, but at moments the sonics are a little off. This is a shame, as Cambreling conducts here a shade better than Antonio Pappano on the Royal Opera DVD, the differences being in the Countess’s two arias. Having played these pieces for a soprano friend of mine many years ago, I can assure you that they are written in cut time, 2/2, and so are not to be performed as slowly as they so often are. Pappano, then, conducts them in the conventional way which is wrong; Cambreling at a brisker pace which is right. Christiane Oelze cannot match Röschmann as an actress, thus her overall presentation (visual as well as aural) is not as strong, but strictly from a singing perspective Oelse’s voice is radiant and exquisite (I have previously described her as having a voice of pure crystal) whereas Röschmann’s is plain-sounding and a bit fluttery.

What makes Marthaler’s conception work is his zany, Marx Brothers-style sense of humor, which (thankfully) is tasteful and never overdone. In brief, this is a great singing and conducting performance set to a clever but not always convincing stage production. An opera like Rossini’s La pietra del paragone benefits from this kind of surreal zaniness because it isn’t really a stage plot that one takes the least bit seriously, but Beaumarchais’s comedy of manners, though requiring some good slapstick moments, needs a bit more structure in order to make sense of it. Therefore I recommend this DVD for its many good points while still preferring the Royal Opera version as a visual representation of the work.

FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

Also available on Blu-ray

MOZART Le nozze di Figaro • Jesús López-Cobos, cond; Ludovic Tézier ( Count Almaviva ); Barbara Fritoli ( Countess Almaviva ); Luca Pisaroni ( Figaro ); Isabel Rey ( Susanna ); Marina Comparato ( Cherubino ); Jeanette Fischer ( Marcellina ); Carlos Chausson ( Bartolo ); Raúl Giméz ( Basilio );Enrique Viana ( Don Curzio ); Solidad Cardoso ( Barbarina ); Miguel Sola ( Antonio ); Teatro Real O & Ch • TEATRO ROYAL TR97002DVD (DVD: 193:03)


Ideally, an opera overture sets the mood for us, although it sometimes serves the less lofty functions of quieting an audience or ushering in late arrivals. Modern technology has introduced yet another, still less lofty function. An opera overture now provides the DVD producer an opportunity to run cast credits past the viewer, replete with publicity photos and stills. If there is time left over, the cameraman has leave, as in the present case, to display a close-up of a kettledrum, while the principle musical element lies in the agile string playing of the Teatro Real Orchestra. One has the sense, in this live performance that the camera is watching the opera for us, and often directing our attention to things not particularly relevant, or things we’d prefer not to notice at all. For example I would prefer not to have my attention drawn, by means of a close-up, to the Countess’s throat undulating in perfect synch with her wavering pitch as she struggles through “Porgi Amor.” Close-ups are dangerous. They can bring to light vocal difficulties, seams in the costumes, the counterfeit quality of the sets, and add a good 10 years to the faces of most cast members. What appears opulent and miraculous in the segments filmed from the viewpoint of the theater attendee quickly vanishes during the arbitrary swooping and zooming of the cameras. The singers are at a disadvantage in an unresolved push and pull as they play sometimes to the audience, sometimes to the camera. A lens placed inches from the faces of the Almavivas allows us to read their significant exchange of glances in the marriage scene, but one notes that it would be entirely lost on the theater audience. Conversely, Susanna’s mischievous look as she plans a flying leap upon her future marriage bed in the first scene, obviously played to the house, is overstated vaudeville to the DVD viewer.


With visual grievances set aside, musical justice is done in abundance by a perfect cast for Mozart’s “perfect opera.” It is, of course, an ensemble opera, and the ensemble singing is superb. The contribution of every cast member is solid and satisfying both musically and dramatically. Luca Pisaroni stands out as the most beautiful voice, and his facile portrayal of Figaro’s many faceted character is admirable. Maestro Jesús López-Cobos’s conducting is expert, and often inspired. One might add that his conducting is “authentic,” as in Mozart’s time the work, the composer, and the performer took precedence over the conductor in contrast to our recent cult of personality figures like Karajan or Bernstein. López-Cobos is a fine craftsman as well as a fine artist and possesses a wonderful sense of tempo. For example the unfolding sequence of Allegro s, which bring the second act to a close, is executed brilliantly.


Stage director Emilio Sagi sets his cast spinning in a charming and credible manner. One might raise an eyebrow, however, at his idea of the Countess, traditionally a heroic and noble personage, being transformed now and then into a buffa character. The comic elements of her eating a pastry with too much gusto after first refusing it, her being plumped and fussed over while her chair and footstool are being arranged, and her comical russet wig seem out of place. The flirtation with Cherubino under the close and unflattering eye of the camera gives the sense of her being a silly, aging matron making a fool of herself. If one knows the third play of Beaumarchais’s trilogy, one knows how wrong this interpretation is.


The sets, seen from the theater audience point of view, are quite elegant, and warm in color, though there are marked hints of austerity. Only a few articles of furniture occupy the large palace chambers. There is no chair for Cherubino to hide in during the first act; only an immense bed, which makes its point perhaps a little too obviously. The Countess’s bare chamber contains only a large bed, a tiny table, and a chair, engulfed in large expanses of floor space and unadorned walls. Austerity is the word of the day in Madrid just now, and it seems to have crept from the legislature to the stage, and finally to the orchestra pit, where horns are replaced by flutes. This is especially disappointing in the great Larghetto section of the act IV finale where Figaro is awaiting Susannah’s assignation with the Count.


Ultimately, the music is so great, so well played, so well recorded; the performers are so charming, the sets so imaginative, that one forgives the flaws; even the clumsiness of the camera. The opera is intact and its greatness compelling. In the filming of operas, technology has not had time to reach the artistic heights of its subject. With perhaps the exception of Bergman’s production of Die Zauberflöte, opera still works only at the opera. If one can’t attend, and there are more and more reasons why one can’t, then DVDs might be the next best thing. Still, the gap between the best and the next best is as wide as the gap between the cylinder and the CD.


FANFARE: Raymond Beegle

Recorded at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in June 2004, this Marriage of Figaro was unanimously acclaimed by public and critics alike as a Mozart opera landmark. Director Jean-Louis Martinoty brings an elegantly intelligent narrative sense to an interpretation in which the protagonists, against a backdrop of magnificent canvases of 18th-century inspiration, are dressed by Sylvie de Segonzac in a palette in which every shade is perfect. Hans Schavernoch's set suggests an elitist society that is coming apart at the seams. René Jacobs conducting of the Concerto Köln is meticulous and perfectly balanced, offering a ravishing use of tonal colour and orchestral dynamics. A veteran Almaviva, the excellent Pietro Spagnoli plays opposite Annette Dasch's beauteous Countesss. As Figaro and Susanna, Luca Pisaroni and Rosemary Joshua are a truly sparkling couple, while mezzo Angelika Kirchschlager embodies the most divine troubling of Cherubino.

Sony Classical announces a further batch of complete recordings from the CBS/Sony and RCA Victor catalogues. The newest installment of this popular series features some unusual repertoire as well as documents of the New York Metropolitan Opera in its postwar heyday. Mozart’s Figaro is here too, sung by “a delightfully fresh-sounding” Michele Pertusi (BBC Music Magazine) in Zubin Mehta’s 1992 recording of Le nozze di Figaro with the Maggio Musicale of Florence. The BBC reviewer lauded “Mehta’s energising sense of pace and colour [and] consistently good orchestral playing,” and Gramophone was also highly enthusiastic, writing that it “sounds like the performers were enjoying themselves. Save the Countess and Susanna, they’re all Italians (oddly rare on disc). This lends bubbling virtuosity to the Italian librettist’s exchanges for Lucio Gallo’s Count and Michele Pertusi’s Figaro…And both Karita Mattila [the Countess] and Marie McLaughlin [Susanna] are so at home with their mistress/servant roles.”

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REVIEW:

Zubin Mehta leads this modern-instrument performance that features characterful individual performances and an unusual variant of the Count’s aria for the vivid Lucio Gallo.

– BBC Music Magazine

Also available on Blu-ray

“Nothing is harder to put on stage than lightness. And humor is the sharpest weapon of the desperate. That is why it is an obligation, indeed a must, to enjoy this Figaro by Jürgen Flimm at the Staatsoper to the fullest.“ (ARD Radio) This production of “Le nozze di Figaro” is directed by the former artistic director of the Staatsoper Berlin, Jürgen Flimm, who characterizes it as follows: “Figaro is by far the best work ever devised for the stage; it combines everything that moves the human heart and mind – forlorn hope, pleasantry, satire, profound significance, also much ado about nothing and vain amours.” This production with a star-studded ensemble of soloists was Flimm’s third staging of this musical masterpiece, and this time he places the plot in Count Almaviva‘s summer residence – a place where the count spent his childhood, a place full of memories where time has left its marks. It is in this hot atmosphere of summer that the great day unfolds: holidays, sun, sea, pretty women take a fancy to pretty men and pretty men take a fancy to pretty women. A midsummer night‘s dream full of tangled paths and futile longing where the women pull the strings of intrigue with their gentle hands.

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Also available on standard DVD

“Nothing is harder to put on stage than lightness. And humor is the sharpest weapon of the desperate. That is why it is an obligation, indeed a must, to enjoy this Figaro by Jürgen Flimm at the Staatsoper to the fullest.“ (ARD Radio) This production of “Le nozze di Figaro” is directed by the former artistic director of the Staatsoper Berlin, Jürgen Flimm, who characterizes it as follows: “Figaro is by far the best work ever devised for the stage; it combines everything that moves the human heart and mind – forlorn hope, pleasantry, satire, profound significance, also much ado about nothing and vain amours.” This production with a star-studded ensemble of soloists was Flimm’s third staging of this musical masterpiece, and this time he places the plot in Count Almaviva‘s summer residence – a place where the count spent his childhood, a place full of memories where time has left its marks. It is in this hot atmosphere of summer that the great day unfolds: holidays, sun, sea, pretty women take a fancy to pretty men and pretty men take a fancy to pretty women. A midsummer night‘s dream full of tangled paths and futile longing where the women pull the strings of intrigue with their gentle hands.

Also available on Blu-ray

For the 225th anniversary of Mozart’s death, La Scala Theatre presents a new production of Le nozze di Figaro that had been entrusted to the extraordinary director Frederic Wake-Walker (author of a production of La finta giardiniera which was the revelation of the Glyndebourne Festival in 2014). He focusses the action of the piece on the instability of love: “Le nozze di Figaro presents us with an impossibility – a world where everyone is loving and forgiving.” The approach to his direction is “elaborate and very innovative” and “also musically, the new production of Figaro is worth a tour to Milan." (NZZ) "the cast is magnificient.” (Kurier) “… when Diana Damrau enters as the Countess, we get a performance of special gravitas. Even the orchestra, under Franz Welser-Möst’s baton, melts to such grace.” (Financial Times)

Classical Music