Jackson’s Lane Theatre
Figaro – Louis Hurst
Susanna – Shafali Jalota
Count Almaviva – Thomas Chenhall
The Countess – Camilla Harris
Cherubino – Esme Bronwen-Smith
Don Basilio, Don Curzio – Martins Smaukstelis
Doctor Bartolo – Hector Bloggs
Marcellina – Becca Marriott
Antonio – Owain Evans
Barbarina, Second Bridesmaid – Astrid Joos
First Bridesmaid – Phoebe Smith
Chorus – Anna Simmons, Angela Yang
Benjamin Anderson (assistant director)
Carmine de Amicis (choreography)
Charles Ogilvie (set designs)
Ruben Cameiro (costumes)
Jancy Dancinger (sound and lighting design)
Ben Poore (dramaturgy)
HGO Chamber Orchestra
Thomas Payne (conductor)
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| Images: Laurent Compagnon |
HGO (formerly Hampstead Garden
Opera) has been one of the musical heroes of the pandemic. Last year, it
brought opera back to London with Holst’s Savītri;
this year, it was one of the first to bring it back again, with Cavalli’s
L’Egisto. Now, in a new
production from the director of Savītri,
Julia Mintzer, and in a return to the company’s ‘home’ at Jackson’s Lane Arts
Centre in Highgate, we have perhaps the most beloved opera, most central to the
repertoire of all: The Marriage of Figaro.
It used to be said that one
could not go wrong with Figaro, at
least in terms of staging. Don Giovanni
was the director’s graveyard, largely because directors ignored its theology
and treated it with one-sided psychological realism. Latterly, though, a good
few stagings have shown it is possible to make just as much a mess of its
predecessor. Not this one, though, far from it; its path proves thoughtful,
surprising, and in the best sense provocative. Had I been asked during the
interval where it was heading, I should never have guessed. There was a welcome
dose of matters that lie beyond individual rationality—the socio-political and
what I think we can call the Freudian. That did not come, however, at the
expense of the basic necessities of character delineation and development,
whose expression is of course the achievement not only of the production team
but of the young artists on stage too. What matters is how things come
together—and they came together very well.
Initially, we seemed to have a more or less conventional updating to an English country estate of the early twentieth century, which dating became clearer, as the work progressed, to the time of the Great War. As soon as one truly watched and listened, though, it became clear that this was far from conventional. An eye for period detail, creditable in itself, also suggested haunting by the past—perhaps even by the broader Enlightenment project that had led there and of which this opera may be considered part. The Count’s injuries—we see him either with cane or transported by sedan chair—would seem to have been sustained in prior action, relived a little too enthusiastically by the guard (Antonio) on the estate. Figaro, as his valet, shared in some of that haunting too. The Countess mourned her youth, of course, but may also have been mourning a civilisation that has collapsed and yet which all onstage, in their way, continue manically to celebrate. Laudanum helped, or probably did not—but was widely available to all.
And so, the delirium of war, when it came, was both a natural development and that which has most been feared. The strobe lighting chaos it wrought at the close of the third act—marriage ceremonial itself—is psychological as well as political, throwing up the characters, their affections, and their impulses, and seeing where they land. The fourth act worked out some at least of the consequences. Its final scene needed to celebrate similarly: both as reasoned necessity and as something that, like the final number of Cosí fan tutte, rang hollow and yet true. English titles generally offered straightforward translation, sometimes supplemented by updating and commentary: perhaps in some sense also visualising workings of the unconscious.
The score, slightly cut beyond
the norm, was presented with commendable alertness and cultivation by a small
band of soloists (two violins, viola, cello, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon,
horn, timpani, and synthesised harpsichord) in an arrangement by Jonathan
Lyness, conducted by Thomas Payne. Tempi were often, though not always, brisk,
yet eminently capable of flexibility too, the Countess’s final words given
notably slowly (indeed, as we shall see, tragically). There were a few
occasions when instrumentalists and singers drifted apart, but Payne ensured
that they came back together quickly. There seemed every reason to expect minor
first-night infelicities to be ironed out later in the run.
Heading the cast were a fine
Count and Countess Almaviva. Thomas Chenhall as the former was proud, virile,
and crucially wounded within and without. His third-act aria proved uncommonly
successful in conveying the crucial seria
element to the Count’s musical identity. Camilla Harris’s Countess truly had one
sit up upon her vocal appearance—what wonderful cunning on Da Ponte’s part to
save his trump card until the second act—in a performance as beautifully sung
as it was intelligently presented. Louis Hurst’s Figaro and Shafali Jalota’s
Susanna were keenly observed throughout, properly animating the entire action
from within. As Cherubino, Esme Bronwen-Smith captivated though force of
personality and similar attention to detail. Martins Smaukstelis did likewise
as Basilio, an intriguingly chameleon-like portrayal, boasting notable ease in
Italian as well as a finely expressive face. The very different, more diffident
impression presented by his Don Curzio confirmed the individuality of portrayal.
All the cast contributed, though, to a fine ensemble performance very much
greater than the sum of its parts. Hector Bloggs and Becca Marriott carved out
a Bartolo and Marcellina of genuine depth, no mere buffa caricatures. Owain Evans and Astrid Joos made much of their
roles as Antonio and Barbarina, as even did the Bridesmaid (Phoebe Smith) and additional
chorus members (Anna Simmons and Angela Yang).
Could there, then, yet be emancipation,
even liberation? Perhaps, if only in the moment. A nice touch, pregnant with
meaning, was the Countess assuming Susanna’s (presumed) soubrette voice, a mere
caricature, to Susanna’s horror. There remained a social gulf between them.
Basilio’s final leap into the arms of Antonio suggested other possibilities,
not least in the wake of wartime chaos. That said, the weight of past, present,
perhaps even future could not be disregarded. Long after the final chord, one
remained haunted by the devastation on the Countess’s face following her closing
(false) benediction. In this Freudian Figaro,
God is dead, which calls into question her words of forgiveness and implicit
redemption and is certainly not the case with Mozart and Da Ponte. If, however,
they can still offer something in the moment, as well as recognition that
things are never quite so straightforward as schematic explanations of human
behaviour would have us believe, the work and its authors, above all Mozart, remain productive and provocative as ever.
