Spectacular ‘Figaro’ opens Opera Colorado season

Opera Colorado introduced a new model with its season schedule this year — all three of its productions at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House play in four months in the early part of the year, removing the large gap between the previous November opening and the two remaining operas.

If one of the goals of this change is to stimulate and maintain excitement through the compressed season, then the new production of Mozart’s “Le nozze di Figaro” (“The Marriage of Figaro”) will help achieve it.

As frequently as “Figaro” — the greatest comic opera ever written — is performed, it never loses its power to convert the masses to opera in general.

At Tuesday’s performance, the second of a four-show run, director David Gately’s sensitive touch was in evidence throughout. The production is elegant, but economical. Designer Susan Benson’s sets, in keeping with the period but with innovative artistic touches, are absolutely gorgeous, but curiously sparse.

All of this harmonizes well with the Ellie stage and the intimate nature of the house in general. When OC last performed “Figaro” in 2005, there was a large number of non-singing extras employed, and the sets were complex and busy. This time, even the chorus is held to a minimum number for maximum effect.

Italian Baritone Simone Alberghini leads an immensely talented cast in the title role. The clever servant who ultimately gets the best of his aristocratic employer — but not without taking a few lumps of his own — corresponds exactly to an ideal conception of the character in Alberghini’s hands. Each of his three arias, including the iconic “Non piu andrai,” was a showstopper.

Soprano Ava Pine is magnificent as Figaro’s betrothed, Susanna, in terms of stage time one of the most demanding of all roles. Her playful portrayal complemented Alberghini well, and her aria “Deh vieni, non tardar,” which comes in the opera’s latest stages, was so intensely affecting that the following rush to the conclusion was lent an appropriately wistful tone.

Baritone Keith Phares has the rakish looks and commanding presence necessary for the lecherous and hypocritical, yet somehow sympathetic, Count Almaviva, and his resonant tone in the Act III revenge aria was another breathtaking moment. Soprano Twyla Robinson, as the long-suffering Countess, was particularly engaging in her scenes with Pine, and her richly nuanced presentation of the demanding aria “Dove sono” did not disappoint.

Mezzo-soprano Julie Simson, known and beloved in Boulder as a member of the University of Colorado voice faculty, found a balance in the role of Marcellina that is difficult to attain, as the character progresses from a hateful crone to a loving mother almost instantaneously. Simson’s portrayal was broadly humorous and deeply touching. Bass Thomas Hammons presented an unusually gruff Dr. Bartolo that managed to be riotously funny.

The evening’s finest performance, however, was from Patricia Risley as the pageboy, Cherubino. This “trouser role,” always played by a woman, can become ridiculous if the singer/actress does not get it just right. Risley actually became a lovesick boy, with masculine hormones on continuous display. This masculinity was even palpable when the character, in a famous actor/character double-switch, dressed up as a girl. Risley’s smooth and liquid voice was especially magical in the serenade-aria “Voi che sapete.”

John Baril, OC chorus master, took the baton as conductor for the first time, and led the long score with great confidence. The new OC orchestra was precise, crisp and nimble, and the thrilling trumpets at the end of “Non piu andrai” were extremely memorable. The recitative passages had a fast-moving flow from both the singers and harpsichordist Katherine Kozak.

One minor disappointment was that the fine chorus was handled rather dismissively. The repetition of the Act I choral number, which is standard and provides a smooth lead-in for “Non piu andrai,” was inexplicably cut, and the chorus members took no bows, neither after their last appearance in Act III nor at the very end.

“Figaro” plays again tonight and Sunday.