Deh vieni, non tardar, o gioja opera!

Le Nozze di Figaro is amazing on its own. We all know
that. I mean, come on- It's Mozart. Of course it's going to be amazing. So
naturally when you're on your way to see the dress rehearsal of the Met's
production of this opera, you're expecting to hear some gorgeous arias and see
the same poof-y dresses that every rendition of Figaro ever has used when they
do this play. You also, if you're like me and seen some past productions on the
good old YouTube, are probably expecting the same old one-room-per-scene set
that all the other directors have used when they were coming up with the set
for this, right? Well- if this is what you're expecting, prepare to have your
whole world turned upside down- or rather turned around- because this
production is like nothing else you have ever seen or heard before.

First let's talk about this cast and how perfect they all are together. From a musical 

stand point, their performances were, in
one word, phenomenal. I have heard many recordings from various casts all
around the world and nothing- absolutely nothing- compares to this cast (Renee
Fleming forgive me!). To be perfectly honest, I never thought that I would be
able to like the opera ever again after hearing the soundtrack played over and
over again (specifically the soprano aria Deh Vieni Non Tardar that Susanna
sings in Act IV) when my roommate was learning that aria during freshman year.
I never thought I’d be able to hear that aria again, let alone the whole opera
that went with it. Then I saw this production. Needless to say, I am once again
in love with Marriage of Figaro. From
an acting standpoint, I simply must break it down in order to do this cast
justice.

The actors that play the main couple, Figaro and
Susanna, have a chemistry that makes you wonder if they are actually a couple
in real life (and if they are not, they need to get married right now because
they are just so perfect together). A lot of times when two actors are paired
together as romantic interests, it’s very difficult to make the love believable
to the audience. This is a struggle that many a shows, including other
productions of Marriage of Figaro, have had since theater started. How does
someone pretend they’ve known someone their whole life? How can you simply
create a life-long friendship or romantic relationship? I don’t know how, but
this cast made it happen and for that I salute them. With this production, you
would never have questioned anyone’s relationship because the whole cast had chemistry.
When you saw Marlis Petersen (Susanna) and Ildar Abdrazakov (Figaro) together, you
would have thought that they were soon-to-be husband and wife. Their
relationship on stage had that sort of unconditional love and acceptance paired
with their attraction for one another and their playful teasing that captured
what true love really does look like. Petersen and Abdrazakov have taken their
roles off of the page and brought them to life in a new, sassy, physical way
that would make Mozart and his librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte proud. 

The two that played Count and the Countess, however,
were faced with a different but equally difficult challenge with their roles as
well. You see, the show is set around the pretense of a certain feudal right
that allowed noblemen to take the virginity of their servant’s wives on the
night of their wedding before the husband did. Count Almaviva abolished this
right after marrying the Countess Almaviva (aka Rosina for those of you who
know Marriage of Figaro’s prequel Barber of Seville),, but, after a few
years of marriage, decided that sleeping with the same woman was getting too
boring for him and started having affairs with other girls in the country. One
of these girls is Figaro’s fiancée, Susanna. Because Figaro and Susanna are
working class and don’t have money for a dowry, the Count decides to provide a
dowry and a new room and furniture for them in exchange for a little something
from Susanna as a thank you. The dowry is supposed to be a bribe (or a threat depending
on how you look at it) for the couple to let him reinstate his feudal right to
bed Susanna on her wedding night because he knows that they need that money to
start their life together. If Figaro tries to confront him directly, they’ll
lose the money and their jobs. But if Figaro doesn’t do anything, then the Count
gets to sleep with his wife. To make the Count look even worse, he also gets
furiously jealous whenever he so much as sees another man look at his Countess
and at one point accuses her of having an affair.

From this angle it would be easy to play the Count
as the stereotypical skirt-chasing husband that doesn’t care about his wife unless
she might be cheating on him. It would also be equally as easy to play the
Countess as the stereotypical heartbroken wife that is too hopelessly in love
her man to leave him. We’ve seen that done before in both the play and the
opera. In this rendition, Count Almaviva, played by Peter Mattei, and Countess
Almaviva, played by Amanda Majeski, are shown as the well-rounded individuals
that Beaumarchais
intended them to be. 

While both actors showed the traits that are prominent
in the libretto that were listed before, they also interacted with each other
in a way that showed the audience that, even though their marriage was broken
and Rosina was heartbroken and the Count didn’t realize that what he was doing
was what started it all, you could still tell that they cared about each other.
It’s so easy to make a character like the Count seem like he doesn’t give a
damn about his wife, but it’s not true. He does love her- and he makes a point
to never mistake his feelings of lust for other women as love. He does care about
what she does- people generally don’t threaten to break down doors they think
their wife’s lover is hiding behind when they’re indifferent to what the other
person does. He’s just used to always getting what he wants and doesn’t like it
when things don’t go his way. His character isn’t as straightforward as you
would think and Mattei does a fantastic job at showing all the little
complexities in the Count’s character in his performance. Majeski also does a
fantastic job as portraying the Countess as heartbroken yet strong woman that
is cunning and smart enough to scheme with her friend/maid Susanna to get back
at her ungrateful husband, but also loving and kind enough to forgive her husband
after she catches him. Mattei and Majeski do a phenomenal job in their performance
and I would hate to have to follow that.

However, the one character that really stole the
show was Cherubino- the horny little teenage boy that is always finding trouble
around the castle. Isabel Leonard’s portrayal of the quintessential
trouser role is one that every mezzo-soprano should aspire to become. To quote
Tina Turner, it’s “simply the best!!!!!!!” 

Now let's talk about this set. The director Richard
Eyre, sets the opera in a 18th-century manor house in Seville during the 1930s,
which means no petticoats, no powdered wigs, and no ornate 18th century
Spanish costumes. And instead of the regular four sets for the four acts of the
opera that most directors use, this set designer Rob Howell created a modern
looking castle that revolved around the stage. I repeat- the set revolved on
the stage. The fact that the actors were able to go from room to room in the
house made the most incredible impact on the flow of the show. The acts were
fluid and the audience could flow the characters as they went from Figaro’s
room to the Countess’s room to the room where the wedding would be held to the
garden rather than having to stop, close the curtain, change the set, and start
the next scene. Suddenly, every aria and recitative flowed seamlessly and you
were able to actually believe the opera actually took place in a castle outside
of Seville in Spain and not on a set piece that was made to look like a giant
room on the Met’s gigantic stage. Howell is a genius and should be given a
Kennedy Center Honor award right now just for how he has transformed this show (note:
he is also the set designer for this seasons production of Carmen and after
seeing this show, I can’t wait to see what he did with Bizet’s masterpiece!)

And there you have it. Met’s season opener’s
performance of Le Nozze de Figaro is surely going to be a legend among opera
lovers. Beaumarchais, Mozart and Da Ponte would be proud.