The Marriage of Figaro – Opera Australia

Overview

Sung in its original Italian, Mozart's opera The Marriage of Figaro is full of romance. In English it may be less pretty, but you have the definite advantage of not having to crane toward the surtitles to know what's going on.

Knowing what's going on is pretty important in this instance, because The Marriage of Figaro, as part of a grand tradition spanning from As You Like It to The Hot Chick, is a comedy of complicated capering, crossdressing and mistaken identity. It takes place on the heady wedding day of young Figaro (Joshua Bloom), personal valet to the count, and housemaid Susanna (Taryn Fiebig). Not unlike many weddings, this is a day of obstacles and escalating madness: the count (Michael Lewis) expresses his own, determined and dishonourable intentions toward Susanna; the meddling Marcellina (Jacqueline Dark) tries to recoup debts from Figaro through forced marriage; Bieber-esque pubescent Cherubino (Dominica Matthews) crushes on everyone; and plots are hatched all around.

This is a classic opera, but one that's always contained a note of subversion. Along with the smartly translated libretto, it's been made relevant and accessible with a modern setting in a privileged gated community, where a servant subclass and the antics of a grabby, entitled elite still resonate. Opera Australia have given it to director Benedict Andrews (Gross und Klein, The Seagull) and a Belvoir-based crew (set designer Ralph Myers, costume designer Alice Babidge, choreographer Lucy Guerin) to head probably their most experimental, hippest opera of the year, and it successfully speaks to a broader — and younger — audience.

The creative team have updated both story and spectacle. The ambitious, mechanised set is a distinctly sleek realisation of the pomp we expect from a night at the opera, and as the white, minimally adorned rooms slide past and give way to the next, we get a witty image of how the insides of cloistered mansions must appear to those hired to clean them. The movement stops before it outstays its welcome, but powerful visual elements — including a deer carcass, several ribbon twirlers, and a tonne of confetti — keep the aesthetic lively, comic and slightly crazed.

The Marriage of Figaro is a chance to see some of opera's finest flex both their comic timing and captivating voices. Fiebig's Susanna is charming and matter-of-factly independent, and backed up an ever-entertaining Matthews and surprisingly deep and sorrowful countess (Elvira Fatykhova). If you like theatre but struggle to relate to opera, see this show. If you like opera but want to see it live in the modern world, see this show. And if you like to watch a rainbow of confetti stream from the roof for an hour, see this show.