"I saw a woman disguised in her maid's clothes hear her husband speak the first tender words he has offered her in years, only because he thinks she is someone else. I heard the music of true forgiveness filling the theatre, conferring on all who sat there a perfect absolution. God was singing through this little man to all the world - unstoppable!"
That quote is from Peter Shaffer's screenplay for AMADEUS, the fictionalized version of Salieri describing this opera's first performance. People who don't "get" Mozart, especially Mozart operas, sometimes will smugly quote the earlier "Too many notes!" of the Emperor's lackey, which the Emperor echoes back. But those characters are meant to be seen as provincial musical bumpkins, not astute critics. It is better to take one's cue from the musically learned Salieri above, and what Shaffer writes (so beautifully intoned by F. Murray Abraham in the film), gets right to the heart of it. The music Mozart created near the end of Act IV seems to forgive and to love not only the Count but us too. We are the Count. And the Countess, and Cherubino, and Figaro, and Susanna, and all the rest. There is a little of all of us in them, and them in us. Who else has managed that?
I have seen no LE NOZZE DI FIGARO DVD that I like as much as this one. David McVicar's production was new in 2006, and I understand it has held up well to a half dozen revivals and inevitable cast changes in the years since. He moves the period forward about 50 years to the 1830s, an unobtrusive update, and he shows a lot of concern for upstairs/downstairs tensions. The overture is choreographed to within an inch of its life, many servants coming and going from a large room, the great windows uncovered for dazzling sunlight right at the moment when the overture's opening rumbles give way to those glorious high strings. An elderly skivvy mops the floor, kitchen help carries pots and pans through, footmen line up to have their hands inspected by the majordomo, a mantle is given the white-glove dust test. There is a lot of flirtation and mischief among these unscripted characters, as well as the establishment of pecking orders. McVicar is creating a big community in the Almaviva palace, and throughout the opera proper, we continue to see some of the same supers in the background, going about their duties but never unmindful of the principals' stories. When the Count in Act II says he does not want to make a show in front of the servants, it plays well, as they have had such a presence.
The premiere cast was ideally suited down the line. I have seen a younger Gerald Finley as Figaro (Glyndebourne DVD), but the Count is more his role vocally. He dispatches the murderous aria without breaking a sweat, and the genial temperament I have seen from him in Figaro and other assignments (Hans Sachs, Olivier) is thoroughly submerged for McVicar's especially fierce and threatening master. Erwin Schrott and Miah Persson are as charming a pair of affianced servants as anyone could want. He is the earthier of the two, more inclined than she to speak-sing and seek expression in other than the strictest musical means. Dorothea Röschmann's is a sad, emotionally-at-sea Countess, evoking great pathos. Her major instrument is heard in happier circumstances here than in the Salzburg performance of the same year (where director Claus Guth had her perform "Dove sono" while navigating a staircase). The Israeli mezzo Rinat Shaham was only a name to me before this, and hers has been an interesting career. With a very few exceptions, her schedule from 2008 to 2014 has been Carmen, Carmen, and more Carmen. One can see why, as even boyed-up for Cherubino, she is obviously a gorgeous woman. I think that of the five most important roles in NOZZE, Cherubino is the one I most often see poorly served. Either the character gets lost in the shuffle, with the unusual placement of two arias close together and then less to sing afterward, or the director tries too hard and makes of "him" a neurotic, proto-ulcerated twitchfest (Christine Schäfer in the above-mentioned Salzburg production comes to mind). Shaham I find quite wonderful in the role. She and McVicar know that the character is in a state of anxiety and confusion but also joy and excitement. "I sigh and moan without meaning to, throb and tremble without knowing; I find no peace both night or day, but even still, I like to languish!" How terrible and how wonderful.
The late Philip Langridge distinguishes Don Basilio with his patrician musicianship. Basilio gets his aria, as does the Marcellina, Graciela Araya (hers is transposed down). Jonathan Veira sings well but chews up the scenery perhaps a little *too* much in Bartolo's vengeance aria; the character has to swing too widely from this ferocious eye-popping back to the avuncular stability of the later acts.
The ROH orchestra gives a beautiful account under Antonio Pappano. There is an unmistakable influence of historically informed performances, albeit on modern instruments, with bracing rhythms and everything articulated with the care that goes into a world premiere. (The 18th-century reviews suggest this was not the case *at* the world premiere.) One controversial point: Pappano allows or encourages a good deal of ornamentation from the singers, especially when the first section of an aria comes around a second time in an A-B-A design ("Dove sono," "Voi che sapete," etc.). I am an incorrigible puritan and will not bore anyone with language comparing Mozart's lines to exquisite, immutable marble statues and so on. Better to say these singers have the good taste to make a strong case for what they do, and with the period moved forward to the 19th century, this freedom to embellish does seem in key. It is a "Romantic" NOZZE DI FIGARO.
The seven-minute behind-the-scenes featurette is of less interest for the rehearsal-room footage than for Pappano's piano demonstration of "Contessa perdono" and his comments on what each chord and pause mean. His love for this opera is very obvious in his analysis...as it is in his performance, and the work of all his collaborators.
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