Anyone who has served as a friend’s bridesmaid knows that all sorts of last minute crises, mix-ups, and confusion can arise on the day of a wedding.
This is the case — in the extreme — for the characters in Mozart’s classic opera "The Marriage of Figaro." Staged by nationally known director Dan Rigazzi of The Metropolitan Opera in New York, Madison Opera’s production of "Figaro" is a musically vivacious visit to the Spanish countryside, where a clever servant outwits his master, and wives school their husbands on honesty, love and forgiveness.
Based on a comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, the popular opera picks up several years after "The Barber of Seville," focusing on a single day when Figaro (Matt Boehler) and his love Susanna (Jasmine Habersham) announce their plan to marry. Several parties object, including their lascivious employer Count Almaviva (Michael Adams).
Kirsten Lippart as Cherubino, Jasmine Habersham as Susanna in "Marriage of Figaro" at Madison Opera.
The Count has designs on Susanna while an older housekeeper, Marsellina (Margaret Gawrysiak), has eyes for Figaro, claiming that they must wed because he has defaulted on a loan. Hijinks follow, including cross-dressing, hiding in closets, unlikely family reunions, arranging secret meetings, many cases of mistaken identity and finally, tricking the Count into falling in love with his own wife, Countess Almaviva (Elizabeth Caballero).
As Figaro, Boehler is the master of these revels. Energetic, confident and clever, he easily manipulates the Count, singing repeatedly, “If, my dear Count, you feel like dancing, it’s I who'll call the tune.” Boehler’s warm bass deftly handles the challenging score.
As his betrothed Susanna, Habersham does some scheming of her own. Her delicate soprano enchants throughout the performance and blends beautifully with Caballero’s strong, expressive voice in a second act duet where the mistress and her maid write a mischievous letter together.
From left, Elizabeth Caballero as Countess Almaviva and Michael Adams as Count Almaviva in Madison Opera's "Marriage of Figaro" in Overture Hall.
In contrast, Caballero summons great melancholy in her initial aria lamenting her husband’s wandering eye, her voice soaring through Overture Hall. Both Gawrysiak and Kirsten Lippart (Cherubino) provide great comic relief and ethereal, dynamic sopranos in smaller roles.
Finally, Adams’s Count Almaviva is plagued by his passions, equally driven by lust for new conquests and rage when he believes another man covets his neglected wife. But since his foibles are so large, they are an easy target for ridicule. Physically recoiling whenever he’s thwarted, the Count rebounds to scheme relentlessly. Adams’s rich baritone is more than equal to his character’s suggestive overtures to Susanna, his fits of jealousy and his eventual apology.
The production’s richly detailed set suggests the interior of a manor house, its walls covered in pastoral murals of women and cherubs cavorting in a lush landscape awash in turquoise blue and green. Additional wall panels with painted forest scenes easily transform into the manor’s outdoor garden with the addition of some statuary. Men’s costumes of breeches, vests and tailcoats pair nicely with the women’s gowns of light pastels and cream in the silhouette of the late 1700s.
Matt Boehler as Figaro and Jasmine Habersham as Susanna in Madison Opera's "Marriage of Figaro" in Overture Hall.
When "The Marriage of Figaro" debuted in Vienna in 1786, one journalist gushed, “(It is) a masterpiece of art. It contains so many beauties, and such a wealth of ideas, as can be drawn only from the source of innate genius.” With glorious strings and harpsichord featured in the orchestra under the baton of Stephanie Rhodes Russell, this production demonstrates why the opera was an immediate hit and eventually earned a place in the standard repertoire.
Madison Opera’s final production of the season, "The Marriage of Figaro" will be performed in Overture Hall at Overture Center on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. The three-hour opera is sung in Italian with English supertitles.
