David McVicar’s funny, sexy, quick and clever production of Le Nozze de Figaro is fast becoming a Royal Opera House classic. It returns to the stage at Covent Garden for its third time in four years and swaggers with confidence: the choreography is neat, the sets are slick, there is great depth within the cast, it has a sharpened political edge and with Colin Davis in charge in the pit, this is a celebration.
      Class is at the heart of the opera and is sharply drawn into focus in this production. The setting is moved from the usual 18th century to a French Chateau on the eve of the bourgeois revolution of 1830, so evocatively captured by Delacroix with his bare-breasted Liberty Leading the People. It’s the revolution against the restored and un-chastened Bourbon monarchy which brings in the more modest and middle-class friendly Louise-Phillipe, and the transposition is extremely effective. The Count has given his word not to impose the old customs and claim his ‘aristocratic right’ to bed new wives on their wedding days, but is threatening to renege. Here is a Figaro confident of being every bit as clever as his master and he uses the threat of disapproval of the servants in his plan to undermine the Count. Figaro chose to put away his barber’s snippers to work in the chateau and he and his fellows are not powerless lackeys, but seem to evoke the birth of the bourgeoisie – clever, confident and threatening aristocratic excess with their moral disapproval.
      Erwin Schrott reprises his role as Figaro and once more his rich bass baritone excites. He is masterful in the role of the valet and his command heightens the class conflict. The servant describes himself as a gentleman and meets his master eye to eye and, though events seem to spin out of control, his confidence assures us that what ever happens in this new world he will be able to weave his way out of trouble.
      The pairing between Schrott’s Figaro and Mariusz Kwiecien’s exhilarating Count provides the electrifying force at the centre of this opera. They both have fine dramatic sensibility but it is Kwiecien who has the greater range of expression and this serves to underline the stability of the servant in face of constantly changing aristocratic weather. Through the four fast and occasionally furious acts he gives us imperious arrogance, seductive charm, dangerous sexual hunger, jealous rage and then a tender brokenness when he pleads for forgiveness from his wife the Countess. She can scarce to resist the appeal to put him back together and the charm that Annette Dasch brings to that role assures us that finally he has seen the light and that he must discard his wanton ways for the love of a good woman.
      The newcomer Eri Nakamura is a little overshadowed as Figaro's fiancée Susanna. This is her first major role and nerves meant that in the opening scenes she was occasionally inaudible. However, this was the first night and she grew in confidence as the opera progressed. Nevertheless, this production is about the Count and Figaro, Kwieken and Schrott, a jostling, jousting, dramatic pairing which ignites this successful restaging of David McVicar’s production.
Charlie Taylor