'The Marriage of Figaro'
Grand opera, human comedy - and even feminism - collide
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Soprano Jennifer Aylmer is Susanna and baritone Andrew Wilkowske is Figaro (pictured in period costumes by Robina D'Arcy-Fox) in the Green Mountain Opera production of Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro." PHOTO BY SPENCER LEONARD |
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By Jim Lowe Times Argus Staff - Published: June 12, 2009
Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro" remains one of the most popular operas ever performed because, despite the comedy's 18th century birth and setting, it portrays real people in timeless situations of love and betrayal.
"'The Marriage of Figaro' opens the door to a new world of opera," wrote the legendary New York Times music critic Harold Schonberg. "It is a scintillating work with real people in it, and the music exposes them for what they are - lovable, vain, capricious, selfish, ambitious, forgiving, philandering. Human beings, in short, all brought alive by the alchemy of a surpassingly inventive and sympathetic musical mind."
The Green Mountain Opera Festival will present this masterpiece on Friday and Sunday, June 19 and 21, at the Barre Opera House, with an international conductor and perhaps the most lavish staging seen in Vermont to date.
Jacques Lacombe, veteran of the Met and former Montreal Symphony assistant conductor, will lead the young but veteran cast of singers, with stage direction by Ellen Schlaefer, and the professional festival orchestra. The production will be sung in the original Italian, with English super-titles projected above the stage, and fully staged with costumes by Robina D'Arcy Fox and staging by Gary Eckhart.
This is the fourth annual production of the Green Mountain Opera Festival, founded and directed by Montreal bass-baritone Taras Kulish and Waitsfield's Green Mountain Cultural Center.
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Lorenzo da Ponte based his libretto for "The Marriage of Figaro" on a play of the same name by the French writer Beaumarchais. The original had all sorts of political overtones, but Mozart and da Ponte, in their adaptation, emphasized the weaknesses and strength of human beings.
The plot follows Figaro, Count Almaviva's valet, who wants to marry Susanna, the Countess's maid. The Count is regretting having abolished the old custom of first rights to the lord of the manor, and actively courts Figaro's intended. Matters are even confused more by Cherubino, the teen page boy with raging hormones, as he airs his passion for the Countess, or any other attractive woman he sees. With all this passion going around, Figaro and the Count become suspicious and jealous as only ego-centered men can. It takes the cunning of Susanna and the Countess to force the men to look at themselves and mend their ways.
"Obviously from a musical point of view, it's a masterpiece," explained Lacombe, after his master class for young singers at the festival's home at the Joslyn Round Barn in Waitsfield. "It's all about relationships between power and sex. I find also a lot of humor in it. Mozart was very good at that, and so was da Ponte."
"Men and women get married; marriages take directions that they don't anticipate; young boys fall in love and have hormonal outbursts - that hasn't changed since when," explained Schlaefer, who is directing. "People try to outwit each other and events turn in ways they don't anticipate. It's a big, long sitcom in many ways."
What separates Mozart's operas from earlier efforts in the genre is that they are about real people rather than gods, goddesses and legends.
"If you look at the Countess, the Count or Figaro, Susanna of course, even Cherubino, they have many layers in their characters - it's true musically and it's true from a theatrical point of view," Lacombe said.
One thing, unusual in the time of Mozart, makes "The Marriage of Figaro" very contemporary.
"From a theatrical point of view, from a dramatic point of view, da Ponte and Mozart seem to have this fascination about the difference of roles between the men and the women," Lacombe said. "The men, by the end, are the weak ones and the women are very strong. That makes it very contemporary. That speaks to us in this day."
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One of the biggest challenges of presenting Mozart's operas is also one of its strengths. It's not about singing, it's not about music and it's not about theater. It's about them all, and if these elements don't interact effectively and with ease it doesn't work.
"Some of the musical choices we make will be based on some of the staging choices and vice versa," Lacombe said. "There's a big implication in that for the orchestra as well. That's why it's also very interesting from a conductor's point of view, to play with the orchestra and have the orchestra interact.
"When you think of the orchestra playing an accompaniment as simple as (the Countess's aria) 'Sove dono,' for example, with very little music, Mozart says a lot of things," he said. "There's never a moment when the music is not implicating what's happening on stage."
Creating a cohesive production of "The Marriage of Figaro," although requiring precision and virtuosity from its singers, demands intimate ensemble work in order to be theatrically effective.
"I believe that the successful Mozart production can only happen when you work as a team," Lacombe said. "I've had experiences in the past where people come and they do their thing, but this is an ensemble work."
In Mozart, the orchestra is a particularly important part of the ensemble, rather than a mere accompanist.
"The orchestra in Mozart is an actor, a character, a very important part of the scene," Lacombe said. "I think you need, for Mozart, a conductor who not only understands the style but understands the theater because they are very much linked together."
Kulish was responsible for the casting, and Lacombe is very happy with the result.
"He managed to put together people who are credible," the conductor said. "They're good vocally and they're flexible to work together as a team. I've seen too many productions where the connections between the performers are fake - it's just not true. You cannot do that here because it's an ensemble piece. I think that's something that we have managed to create."
Schlaefer, too, sees the importance of ensemble and is very happy with the casting.
"My job has been to stay out of the way because these folks know these characters and they live them," the director said. "The really refreshing thing for me is that they don't hold back during rehearsals. The energy they give to the characters is consistent and it's flexible. I've been doing this for a long time now and in many different strata of companies across the country.
"They're great colleagues on stage and off as well," Schlaefer said. "After 30 years, I know it doesn't always happen like this."