The sounds of peacocks and pop music drifted into the tent-auditorium, but inside we were in another world. Ever resourceful, Opera Holland Park has been far from silent during the past year, but this first show back felt different – not least because we found ourselves looking at a brand new stage.
Covid-secure measures have transformed the company’s familiar oblong into a jutting skirt projecting out around the orchestra towards the audience. The result is a big, challenging space, but one full of potential – seized by director Oliver Platt and acclaimed performance designer takis in this season opener: a giddy new staging of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro.
Forget Seville and the politics of the 18th century. This fantasy world of candyfloss wigs and too-bright silks, where hot pink roses trail over a turquoise bower and Susanna picks her wedding dress from a glossy magazine, is Mozart with its skirts hitched up.
Youthful and playful, full of dance routines and plenty of slapstick, this Figaro doesn’t dig very deep, but it doesn’t need to. A young cast inject plenty of sass and spirit into a period rom-com.
Ross Ramgobin is a charismatic Figaro – a good-natured class clown, whose Act IV bitterness (like the sexual advances of Jullian Van Mellaerts’ Count) scarcely registers on the threat-o-meter.
He and Elizabeth Karani’s dark-toned Susanna are all sitcom timing and contemporary energy – a foil to the stillness of Nardus Williams’ Countess.
This is a major role debut for Williams, and it’s dazzling. There are no gimmicks here, just luscious singing that spins gold thread from “Porgi amor”, stilling a rustling auditorium into absolute hush in “Dovo sono”. Holding our focus in an evening of diffuse drama, she’s the musical and emotional centre that anchors this zany romp in place.
Often performing with their backs to conductor George Jackson, the cast’s ensemble is miraculously good. Balance with the newly central orchestra feels like a work in progress, and we don’t quite get the impulsion we need from Jackson’s slightly scattered pit.
A digital fortepiano is an anachronism too far, intrusively heavy-handed in the recitatives. But it’s the only false note in this light-hearted and irreverent Figaro.
To 28 June, operahollandpark.com