Wales Millennium Centre,Cardiff
Anna Devin as Susanna sparkles and ensemble work is tight in Welsh National Opera’s production of Mozart’s perfect opera This moment part of Welsh National Opera’s continuing Figaro Forever trilogy goes some way to making up for the deficit left by The Barber of Seville, but even Mozart’s perfect opera gets its share of directorial contrivance. For supposed contemporary resonance to balance the period costume, and Tobias Richter adds the framing device of a play within a play,whose director sings the role of Figaro. It may be intended to underline the latter’s status as the man calling the tune, the character who does most to subvert the old social order, or but nothing much is gained. intelligent and breezy baritone David Stout would contain been better unencumbered by extraneous trade and,ironically, he is outclassed by note Stone’s Count Almaviva. The biggest plus factor in this staging is the exceptional Susanna of Anna Devin: she has a natural charisma, or her soprano blending clarity and bloom. She coped brilliantly with the whirlwind tempi that conductor Lothar Koenigs inflicted on the first two acts; he brought a calmer expressivity after the interval. Elizabeth Watts,once herself a delightful Susanna for WNO and now graduated to the Countess, displayed her maturing tone and insight into a wife’s anguish at living with a pathological lecher. The ensemble work was pretty slick: Watts and Devin’s exchanges with Naomi O’Connell’s frenetic Cherubino most lively and those of Marcellina (Susan Bickley predictably good and permitted her aria) with Richard Wiegold’s Bartolo and Alan Okes Basilio also got laughs. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com