Vancouver Opera’s “Le nozze di Figaro” (The Marriage of Figaro) opened last weekend. Reviews are in, so is the audience feedback – high time to share impressions and glimpses of the production …
Last Saturday, Jonathan Darlington conducted the premiere of one of his favourite operas, Mozart’s “Le nozze di Figaro”. The traditional staging with a young, highly talented All-Canadian cast did not fail to please the audience:
Reviews after last Saturday’s premiere unanimously celebrate the production as “triumphant”:
David Gordon Duke writes in the Vancouver Sun (April 25th, 2010)
“Vancouver Opera has brought together a young, all-Canadian cast for a production that offers comedy, strong vocal ensembles, and some unnervingly rich characterizations. These virtues are supported and enabled by very fine, nuanced work from the VO orchestra under the baton of its exemplary music director, Jonathan Darlington. Mozart, like comedy, is hard, hard work. Darlington and his band make it seem effortless fun.”
Janet Smith, The Straight (April 26th, 2010) writes:
“Under the baton of Jonathan Darlington, Mozart’s mellifluous music is a study in refined restraint, both in tempo and in feather-light touch.”
“… this is a young, lithe bunch who play ebulliently with the wars of class and love that rule the plot. The farce may be big, but most of the acting, and singing, is about nuance.”
Bloggers, too, were present, some of which witnessed their first opera:
The music has been wonderful to hear and all the principals are wonderful to hear. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I’ve been laughing and, for lack of a better word, grooving to the music of Mozart.
For a small glimpse of the production, see the cast interviews:
Still not understood the convoluted action of this opera buffa based on a Beaumarchais play? Try this.
Next performances are May 1st and 4th. And the next VO production conducted by Jonathan Darlington is already waiting in the wings: Madama Butterfly.
(Videos by Bombshelter Productions & Mike McKinlay, with kind permission of Vancouver Opera.)
Posted by JKL, 30 April 2010
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