★★★☆☆
With Le nozze di Figaro, Mozart surely couldn’t have imagined a better ending for a summer opera if he had tried. After a day of flirtation and scheming, it’s time for the comeuppances — in a beautiful garden, at night. John Cox’s 2005 production makes the most of it. Created for Garsington’s old home, the action transfers well to the outdoors-meets-indoors theatre at the Wormsley estate, in Buckinghamshire. The leafy set merges into the real greenery, the artificial dusk is matched by an inky sky. Cherubino leaps out of the Countess’s bedroom window and hares off past peonies and aliums. Only the light aircraft duetting with Douglas Boyd’s sparky orchestra in the Overture was amiss.
Cox heads straight for the 18th century in this smart production, with silk gowns, wigs and gilt-framed portraits, and an effective room-inside-a-room set by Robert Perdziola. There’s no extra concept to grapple with, simply the ideal measures of depth and comedy. Plentiful chuckles met the hide-and-seek shenanigans; the comic timing as Janis Kelly’s sharp Marcellina was revealed to be Figaro’s mother was delicious.
Jennifer France made a sparkling role debut as a quick-witted, modest Susanna, although she could do with a little more earthiness. And for all Joshua Bloom’s commanding presence, something about Figaro’s relationship with Susanna didn’t ring true: it lacked that champagne fizz. Duncan Rock as a characterful, charmer Count and Kirsten MacKinnon’s elegant, creamy Countess were far more plausible, while Marta Fontanals-Simmons offered a neatly observed Cherubino.
In general, Act I was a little lacklustre and the revelations and resolutions of Act IV were slightly underdone. Yet, if on this first night the midsummer magic wasn’t always there, I imagine it will be as the cast settles in. The Septet at the end of Act II was glorious: the librettist Da Ponte, Mozart and summer opera at their finest.
Box office: 01865 361636, in repertoire to July 16