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Le nozze di Figaro
Photo courtesy of the Salzburg Festival. Copyright Monika Ritterhaus
“Finley's Count is an absolute tour-de-force - a portrayal eclipsing all others in recent memory” The Opera Critic
"He was simply perfect" Mundoclasico
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Composer |
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart |
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Libretto |
Lorenzo da Ponte after Beaumarchais |
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Venue and Dates |
Haus für Mozart, Salzburg As part of the Salzburg Festival 12, 16, 19, 22, 24, 29 August 2009 |
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Conductor |
Daniel Harding |
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Production |
Stage Director: Claus Guth Set and Costume Design: Christian Schmidt Lighting: Olaf Winter Dramaturgy: Ronny Dietrich Choreography: Ramses Sigl |
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Performers |
Il Conte di Almaviva: Gerald Finley La Contessa Almaviva: Dorothea Röschmann Susanna: Marlis Petersen Figaro: Luca Pisaroni Cherubino: Katija Dragojevic Bartolo: Franz-Josef Selig Marcellina: Marie McLaughlin Basilio: Patrick Henckens Don Curzio: Oliver Ringelhahn Antonio: Adam Plachetka Barbarina: Eva Liebau Cherubim [actor]: Uli Kirsch
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Production |
Revival |
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Notes |
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What the critics say
Moore Parker, The Opera Critic, 16 August 2009
http://theoperacritic.com/tocreviews2.php?review=mp/2009/szbfigaro0809.htm
Singing of the highest order
This Figaro revival sees the welcome return of several leads from the original cast - paired this time round with a new Susanna and Cherubino, to crown past runs in every respect.
Dating from 2006, Figaro was the first of Claus Guth's Salzburg Mozart/da Ponte cycle. Giovanni followed, and this years sees the new Così.
His Leitmotiv throughout the series is "Eros" - in Figaro given to a juggling, feather-throwing Cherub, who figuratively pulls the strings, clambering on top of singers in some of their most challenging moments, appearing when you least want him, and generally making a nuisance of himself. Does his presence really contribute? In this lineup of singing-actors, hardly necessary - and at worst, a distraction. During the interval I was amused by an English group who, in Prince Charles vowels, debated the reasoning behind the Cherub - and simply concluded, "...it must be a German thing!"
The production has in past seasons been generally well documented - but a re-visit is a reminder here of the emphasis on the "darker" elements throughout the evening - with a corresponding deficit of esprit, humour, and charm. (Isn't Figaro an opera buffa?). However, there's always the musical experience to consider - and that on this occasion was exceptional.
It is hard to envisage a more homogenous and supreme cast on today's international circuit. Firstly the newcomers. Marlis Petersen is an effervescent, charming and vocally flawless Susanna. As Cherubino, Katija Dragojevic tempers her vibrato and colors her timbre to perfection for the role - quite suburb singing and acting.
Returning to the production, Luca Pisaroni, (Figaro), Gerald Finley (Count), and Dorothea Röschmann were all in exceptional form. Pisaroni builds on his solid, relaxed, portrayal - singing with aplomb. Finley's Count is an absolute tour-de-force - a portrayal eclipsing all others in recent memory. An unusually veristic Countess, Ms. Röschmann phrases eloquently with just the ideal vocal weight and silver shimmer in her tone for the role.
Marie McLaughlin (Marcellina), Franz-Josef Selig (Bartolo), Patrick Henckens (Basilio) Oliver Ringelhahn (Don Curzio) and Eva Liebau (a pertly-sweet Barbarina) are all familiar to the production - each an asset in his own right. Adam Plachetka, made the most of his manic wall-smearing, soil-scattering Antonio, and Uli Kirsch returned as the Cherub.
Daniel Harding favors generally brisk tempi, but allows ample breathing space, with the Vienna Philharmonic in fine fettle as a perfect foil to their colleagues on the stage.
Teresa Cascudo, Mundoclasico, 16 August 2009
http://www.mundoclasico.com/2009/documentos/doc-ver.aspx?id=57a452e0-e441-4217-839a-6a71499cd148
A full translation will appear asap, but in the meantime Uschi has translated the pertinent bit "Regarding Gerald Finley I don't think that new praises can be added to those that his previous performances in the role of Count Almaviva provoked. What we can do, is to subsume them: He was simply perfect."
Reinhard Kriechbaum, Wiener Zeitung, 13 August 2009
http://www.wienerzeitung.at/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=3895&Alias=wzo&cob=430938
A full translation will appear as soon as possible: the following quote has been translated by Petra Habeth
“…there is a real power struggle between Figaro and the Count, who is drawn by Gerald Finley as agile beyond all measures: the prototype of a womanizer driven by desire”
Ljubiša Tosić, der Standard, 13 August 2009
http://derstandard.at/fs/1250003458539/Wiedersehen-mit-dem-Landhaus-der-Triebe
A translation will appear as soon as possible
Patrick Bahners, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 13 August 2009
Translated by Ursula Turecek
Games with exchanged parts
The Revolution does not take place
Out of the role play of a completely enlightened society Claus Guth develops the plot of Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro”. Guth’s staging from the Mozart year 2006 underwent its revival on Wednesday. Daniel Harding conducted the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. In Count Almaviva’s house the intrigues take place on plain stage. If the Count at any time employed a Richard Paulick, he has effaced every trace of it. There is no furniture, no ancestral portraits, no decoration, no embellishments, no representation and no illusions. Everything is painted in white, in the big staircase the characters meet in complete candour.
Some come from upstairs, the others from downstairs, the stairs are wide enough: The French Revolution does not take place. The nobles don’t have secrets, the servants do not cultivate any resentments. Everyone knows his place, but not because they believe in a constitutional class hierarchy, but because they trust in a seemingly freely agreed arrangement to mutual advantage.
Figaro is a factotum in a tailor-made suit from one of the manager hotbeds of our society based on services, a flexible man for whom the Count goes one small step too far with his plans for the allocation of tasks in London’s society. Luca Pisaroni’s energetic and smooth baritone makes one forget the ruffian element of the part’s tradition, the tribute of shrewd overacting that many a Figaro paid in the moment of triumph. Susanna (Marlis Petersen) wears an apron like Frau Jana and Frau Helene at Café Tomaselli’s at the Alter Markt, a badge of her subservient status almost like a quote. Between the Countess and Susanna prevails the intimacy of liberated women. With this equality, how much more painful is the Countess’s comprehension in the humiliation that it means that she depends on the help of a servant! Daniel Harding’s somewhat abrupt conducting accommodated Dorothea Röschmann’s elevated interpretation of the role. The aria „Dove sono“ circles the beautiful moments like the shopping window of a pawnbroker [this phrase makes as little sense in German as in English].
Neither drive nor longing
It has been criticized as a violation of the text that the Count gets proofs of Susanna’s favours right from the beginning while his planning fantasy wants to create abetting conditions for it. But this very detail shows Guth’s psychological refinement: Almaviva the sensualist tries what he hopes to enjoy, to remain master of his impulses and to obviate the inevitable deception of the conqueror. Magnificent is the urgency of the question “E non mi mancherai?” in the Count’s duet with Susanna at the beginning of Act III. You will not stand me up? What is speaking out of him here is more than drive, yet would be termed too sentimentally as longing. The adventure of passion that the Count has engineered with confident calculation unfolds its own compulsion. Those who know Gerald Finley as a lieder singer may marvel at the force that this expert in delicate singing has at his command. The libertine clings to the occasions he creates. Finley uses his body in the same way as he employs his voice, with emphatic flexibility. The page Cherubino who was interpreted in 2006 under the conducting of Nikolaus Harnoncourt by Christine Schäfer, is sung this year for the first time by Swedish mezzo soprano Katija Dragojevic. Beguilingly boyish in the boy’s trousers she interprets her two arias with great brilliancy. Her voice seems to float to become aware of gravity: The “farfallone”, the big butterfly, is an animal experimenting on itself.
Yannick millon, Altamusica, 27 August 2009
http://www.altamusica.com/concerts/document.php?action=MoreDocument&DocRef=4138&DossierRef=3742
A full translation will appear asap, but in the meantime…
"Gerald Finley is an absolutely ideal Count… rather black but always aristocratic, irreproachable in vocal placement and agility..."
Photo Gallery
Photos below courtesy of the Salzburg Festival. Copyright Monika Ritterhaus
Photo below annotated by http://operachic.typepad.com/
Photos below: Mike Vogl APA Picturedesk
Photos below: Kerstin Joensson AP
