Germany Mozart, Le nozze di Figaro: Soloists and Chorus of the Staatsoper Hamburg. Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg / Nicholas Carter (conductor). Staatsoper Hamburg, 29.6.2025. (DM-D)
The audience entered to a full-size projection of the title page of the score featuring Mozart’s handwritten words Le nozze di Figaro. As the lights dimmed and the orchestra started playing, in the film by fettFilm that followed, that front page was removed, to reveal Mozart’s score itself, parallel to the music we heard. Further sheets of the score were removed as more of the score was revealed. In due course, the stream of music was mirrored by the score no longer revealed by apparently removing sheets, but by becoming an endless flow from left to right. Suddenly, the notes on the score took on lives of their own, leaving their allocated positions on the staves and forming into the characters of the Count, hotly pursuing the Countess in chivalrous fashion, while she fled, playfully, amorously. The Countess turned from one into many, the Count turned from a human character into a single sperm, then many, and now sperm were pursuing the fleeing women. They in turn had no chance of escaping and one by one they were hit by a sperm and dissolved as humans. At the end of the overture, the projection screen was raised to reveal the stage. Christoph Hetzer had designed it as a long box, with walls ceiling and floor covered with sheets of music paper, approximately A2 sized, with staves and notes clearly visible. Some of those sheets fell off the walls or ceiling, apparently at random, some were torn off the walls by the characters. A large bed was placed centre stage, initially that of Figaro and Susanna, later that of the Countess. Characters emerged from it as entrances, Cherubino jumped into it and disappeared (instead of jumping through a window). At the end of Act II, in one moment, all remaining sheets fell down at once, revealing the walls as dark metal staves, which remained bare until the end of the performance.
Gesine Völlm’s costumes were equally dominated by staves with and without notes, appearing symmetrically or asymmetrically horizontally or vertically as prints onto the costume fabrics, varying in colour, mainly black or white. The lighting design by Phoenix (Andreas Hofer) created interesting subspaces within the large tunnel of staves, both with and without the music paper.
This overarching framework of film, set, costume and lighting design was consistent, imaginative, witty and intriguing. Within it, the original director Stefan Herheim was able to focus his attention on the characters and their interaction. The Count was a likeable macho, genuine both in his naïve pursuit of women and in his remorse over the state of his marriage. The Countess was young, innocent and not adverse to engaging in at least the thought of an extramarital affair. Susanna and Figaro were in hot pursuit of each other and others, Marcellina was cheerful indeed at finally getting Dr Bartolo for good, and Cherubino was all pubescent testosterone and still unused to it.
The cast revelled in their characterisations. Kartal Karagedik presented a very strong Count, especially vocally. Not only acted but above all sung like that, it was even more believable that he found it easy to seduce women, and they found themselves attracted to him and wanting to be seduced. In this way, Herheim cleverly highlighted the social criticism inherent in the plot against the droit du seigneur right of the first night by reversing it. Olga Peretyatko displayed a very fast vibrato as the Countess – it took a moment to get used to – but it did not distract from the sheer beauty of her voice: fresh and youthful, silvery, agile, and with many interpolated embellishments in her two arias. Her voice was quite close in essence to that of Katharina Konradi’s Susanna. Konradi’s voice was as clear as a bell, with particularly beautiful bloom, and with a strong foundation in the lower range. Chao Deng’s voice was much lighter than that of Karagedik, quite in line with the production’s enhanced emphasis on the Count. His Figaro was believably all over the place, came as quickly as he left, had something witty to say about everything and to everyone (his comparatively many and fast arias), making Susanna almost less than the usual whirlwind by comparison. Julia Lezhneva was funny and sang delightfully as Cherubino. Claire Gascoin and Han Kim presented Marcellina and Dr Bartolo as quite young to be Figaro’s parents (they must have been together as teenagers), and their singing was appropriately strong and lively. Manuel Günther, Peter Galliard and Marie Maidowski gave their small roles as Basilio, Don Curzio and Barbarina individuality, and Keith Klein was very funny as Antonio. Nicholas Carter conducted a very smooth and stylish Le nozze di Figaro.
Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe
Featured Image: Hamburg State Opera’s Le nozze di Figaro (2015) © Karl Forster
Production:
Director – Stefan Herheim
Revival director – Birgit Kajtna-Wönig
Stage design – Christoph Hetzer
Costume design – Gesine Völlm
Lighting design – Phoenix (Andreas Hofer)
Video – fettFilm (Momme Hinrichs, Torge Müller)
Chorus director – Christian Günther
Dramaturgy – Alexander Meier-Dörzenbach
Cast:
Figaro – Chao Deng
Susanna – Katharina Konradi
Count Almaviva – Kartal Karagedik
Countess Almaviva – Olga Peretyatko
Cherubino – Julia Lezhneva
Marcellina – Claire Gascoin
Dr Bartolo – Han Kim
Basilio – Manuel Günther
Don Curzio – Peter Galliard
Barbarina – Marie Maidowski
Antonio – Keith Klein