Sunday, March 11, 2012

The Most Congenial Figaro

Kitchen/cooking music for the past few weeks has been David McVicar's 2006 Covent Garden  Nozze di Figaro with Erwin Shrott, Miah Persson and others, which I've been playing over and over.  I don't suppose it is the most dazzling  Figaro ever achieved but I suspect it might be the most agreeable: warm-hearted, easy-going and funny.  Schrott nails his role in the lede as the ingenious scamp.  And Persson, his bride-to-be,  you just want to nibble from head to toe; so also Rinat Shaham as Cherubino if you have the stamina.    Mrs. B had seen Schrott play Don Giovanni (I hadn't); she marveled at his capacity to change character.    I thought Gerald Finley's Count was just  a smidge too good natured; the Count needs at least a hint of menace; Mrs. B thinks I am taking it all too seriously.

The piece itself of course is one of those that just never fails; you (or at least I) can always find something you didn't see or her before  Obviously I am not alone in my opinion; you can find an array of enthusiastic review/excerpts here.



Sad to say, I did not see this presentation live. But I did see my first Figaro at Covent Garden back in '76: I think generously state-subsidized orchestra seats cost us less than $10 a head. I enjoyed that one too, although I certainly can't say I understood it as well.

4 comments:

Toni said...

I love everything about this production. Even what they do with the overture. And Dorothea Raushmann (sp?) is wonderful. I can't get past Porgi Amor without rewinding and listening a second time.

In the special features McVicar says that all the stage directions are there in Mozart's music. Astounding...and a great insight (assuming it's true). Has McVicar done DG or Cosi?

Anonymous said...

is it ok to write "lede" when you mean "lead" -- talking about opera? i never liked it in the newsroom -- i always wrote "lead."

Buce said...

Lede: all the more important in music, where you want folks to understand you are not talking about heavy metal.

Anonymous said...

Schrott does a VERY funny Leporello in a 2000s Salzburg production in the expected Eurotrash style. And Roeschmann is Elvira! The acting is exceptional. The production's on YT.