United States Mozart, The Marriage of Figaro: Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of Santa Fe Opera / Harry Bicket (conductor). Crosby Theatre, Santa Fe, 31.7.2025. (HS)
Production:
Director and Costume designer – Laurent Pelly
Scenic designer – Chantal Thomas
Lighting designer – Duane Schuler
Chorus director – Susanne Sheston
Cast:
Figaro – Riccardo Fassi
Susanna – Liv Redpath
Countess – Ailyn Pérez
Count – Florian Sempey
Cherubino – Hongni Wu
Marcellina – Lucy Schaufer
Doctor Bartolo – Maurizio Muraro
Barbarina – Isobel Anthony
Antonio – Mattia Venni
A highlight of many performances at Santa Fe Opera’s Crosby Theatre is the view. The theater is designed with an open back to the stage, and audiences can relish the sunset over the desert to the west. I am not going to say that the highlight of this performance of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro was the spectacular vision in yellows, oranges, pinks and reds against the green shrubbery on the hills behind the opera house, but an uneven cast and a decidedly offbeat production surely benefited from it.
Technically, Laurent Pelly’s production made its debut here in 2021, stripped down by COVID limitations, but was so popular that it has been brought back. There are some captivating ideas. Gears and a revolving stage play off the opera’s single-day timeline, which requires clockwork precision from the live artists to make the humor work. The choice to line up all the characters around the edge of the rotating platform – and then finish the evening with them returning to their positions – underlined the idea of a ‘well-made play’ in which the story covers 24 hours.
Interlocking white walls that actors can push into place, details such as doors, stairs and arches drawn in black: this may not follow the settings of librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte exactly, but the sets here frame the many ensembles with a certain level of wit. It all works, and it has the benefit of keeping an audience just a bit off balance.
Two compelling sopranos were the best things about the cast: Ailyn Pérez as the Countess and Liv Redpath as Susanna. Pérez stepped in as the Countess with this performance after Marina Monzó, who sang in the first three, withdrew for ‘personal reasons’. Pérez, who is to sing the remaining five, personified the Countess Almaviva, not only as a wife disappointed by her husband’s neglect but as a sharp mind who can outthink all the men in the household. She also knows this score inside out.
She delivered the big arias – ‘Porgi amor’ and ‘Dove sono’ – with enviable musicianship and just the right amount of emotional power shaded in velvet. She was the centerpiece. In the rising scales in the Act II finale ensemble that so many sopranos do not articulate quite as well as she can, and in the famous Act III ‘letter duet’ (‘Canzonetta sull’aria’) with Redpath, Pérez created the incandescent beauty one hopes to hear.
For her part, Redpath’s Susanna conveyed just how resourceful the character can be, all while singing some of Mozart’s prettiest music. The character is in almost every scene, and her agile voice contributed to some of the best moments. Redpath’s lighter soprano also blended nicely with Pérez’s voice. It is too bad some audience members, enamored of a beautifully held high note near the close of her Act IV aria, ‘Deh? Vieni non tardar’, started applauding before the aria ended. It was indeed ravishing, but still.
Mezzo-soprano Hongni Wu, who was a scary Comrade Chin in 2022’s M Butterfly here, exaggerated every aspect of Cherubino, the adolescent boy who hounds everyone around him, especially the women. The character’s arias – ‘Non so più’ and ‘Voi che spapete’ – seemed rushed.
One standout was mezzo-soprano Lucy Schaufer’s Marcellina who stole every scene she was in. She and bass-baritone Maurizio Muraro as Doctor Bartolo created vivid characters – among the most distinctive I have seen in these roles. Schaufer found a different pose, intended to be sexy, for every line. Muraro (who has performed this role at the Metropolitan Opera) created just as catchy a persona. Playing their buddy, Steven Cole as Don Basilio added a fine lyric tenor and his own persnickety comic touch.
That leaves bass-baritone Riccardo Fassi, who has sung the role of Figaro at Covent Garden. He played Figaro as a clueless nebbish, channeling a kind of Charlie Chaplin tramp complete with a toothbrush mustache. Baritone Florian Sempey as the Count never stopped seeming angry and thus was unfortunately one-dimensional.
In the pit Harry Bicket, the company’s music director, got it off to a sluggish start with an overture that dragged, but he picked things up once the action began. Still, everything seemed to be extra-emphatic in a score that rewards elegance.
Harvey Steiman