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Le Nozze di Figaro
Paolo Olmi, Conductor
Giovanni Furlanetto, Elzbieta Szymtka, Ludovic Tezier, Janice Watson, Francesca Provvisionato
Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Librettist: Lorenzo da Ponte
This is an awesome production. I'd say it's tied with the Gardiner version, but they're both so different it's worth owning both. One thing about this cast is that they seem to have really done their own thing as far as character interpretation goes - they are the characters you know and love, but performed with slightly different approaches that are quite refreshing.
Giovanni Furlanetto is a great Figaro. Because of him my sister will actually watch this opera with me - she thinks he's cool, and I agree. For most of the opera he projects a contagious good mood, as if he was always laughing silently, confident in his own ability to see that everything will turn out all right. It's great; and when he loses this good-natured confidence for "Aprite un po quegli occhi" it's very touching. His voice is wonderful, too, and he relates very well to Cherubino during "Non più andrai." With many Figaros one feels that there is an element of unintentional cruelty, or at least some insensitivity, in this aria. But Furlanetto makes it obvious that he is teasing Cherubino only to cheer him up. The serious way he delivers the final two lines and then embraces the boy is great. He was obviously really in touch with the role, but he gives it a lot of his own twist, with great success.
Elzbieta Szymtka's Susanna bears traces of her excellent Despina in Marriner's Così fan tutte. She gives us a character who is intelligent and sometimes impertinent, but generally has her heart in the right place. She obviously enjoys teasing Figaro, but her pain at his apparent betrayal in Act IV is very real. I prefer Alison Hagley's interpretation of the role, but Szymtka is a good alternative and works really well alongside Furlanetto.
Ludovic Tezier is just a little bit creepy as Count Almaviva. (My sister generally shouts "Argh, it's the skeevy perv!" whenever he walks onstage.) But he has a good sense of some of the comedy in the role, something that many other Almavivas lack. (His facial expression when he walks on with that axe is PERFECT). His voice is great, and he seems truly penitent at the end - to the extent that even in the rousing finale he maintains a kind of sad expression.
I found Janice Watson to be a little bit too whiny for my taste. After hearing and seeing Kiri Te Kanawa's incredible dignity, it's difficult to accept a Countess who seems to spend the entire scene in the bedroom draped mopily over various pieces of furniture. But she has a nice voice, and her bewildered "Susanna?" after Susanna comes out of the closet always makes me laugh.
For my money, Francesca Provvisionato is the best Cherubino on video - and I'm including Frederica von Stade, whose voice is better but who never acted convincingly like a boy. Provvisionato has a very amazing stage presence - she carries herself exactly like a teenage boy, and even looks boyish with the short haircut. She sings well and has an excellent sense for comic timing.
I was amazed by both Marcello Lippi's Bartolo and Tiziana Tramonte's Marcellina. Instead of the traditional comic take on these roles, Lippi and Tramonte give us actual human beings that we can sympathize with. It adds a whole new dimension to the opera. You actually feel for Bartolo during his aria "La vendetta," and he actually seemed happy to finally be getting married to Marcellina. This doesn't fit at all with the original Beaumarchais characters, but it works within the opera. I thought it was great - a way of looking at Le Nozze di Figaro as a work unto itself.
The production also had a great Basilio in Sergio Bertocchi. His aria (which I was glad to see left in) was funny, delivered with a matter-of-fact attitude. He sings well - that's not an easy piece, and he had exactly the right mix between comedy and seriousness as well as the voice to pull it off.
The staging was great - nothing out of the ordinary in that respect. The set for Act IV was nicely laid out. One detail that I particularly loved - Figaro walking over Antonio's windowbox flowers during the Act II finale. It was quite funny.
See this video, it's really wonderful. It has this feeling of freshness to it - almost as if it were a new opera and this were the original cast to interpret it. They took a few nontraditional approaches and they made it work. I reccomend getting this along with the Gardiner to complete your collection - both are available on DVD, and both are equally excellent.
| Originally Reviewed: | 23-Aug-03 |
