✭✭✭✩✩

written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,

directed by Marshall Pynkoski

Opera Atelier, Elgin Theatre, Toronto

April 24-May 1, 2010

A common flaw in staging operas is the lack of highly detailed direction.  Opera Atelier’s new production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro is a rare example of the opposite situation--so much complex stage business that it begins to distract us from the music.  It’s clear that director Marshall Pynkoski wants us to view Figaro as a living comedy that happens to be sung rather than a great work to revere more than enjoy, but in loading the action with so much extraneous movement, he makes us long to have the characters relax a bit and just sing.

OA’s much-loved previous production colour-coded all the couples so that we could predict the outcome of all the confusion simply by seeing which two characters had matching outfits.  Martha Mann’s approach in the new production has been to emphasize the Spanish setting through reds and blacks and to colour-code the characters based on their moral nature.  Cherubino (Wallis Giunta), the naughty but innocent page boy, is in cream; the wronged Countess (Peggy Kriha Dye) and her servant Susanna (Carla Huhtanen) wear pastels; Susanna’s fiancé Figaro (Olivier Laquerre) is in earth tones while the Count (Phillip Addis), who lusts after Susanna, and Marcellina (Laura Pudwell) and Dr. Bartolo (Curtis Sullivan), who would prevent Figaro’s wedding, are all clad in the darkest hues.  

It’s true that comedies are ruled by eros, but to have erogenous zones continually fondled to shrieks and squeals, as Pynkoski demands, and to treat every rigid object as phallic soon becomes tiresome from repetition.  So does overindulged mugging.  It seems Pynkoski has changed Don Basilio (Patrick Jang) from the local music master to some kind of symbolic stage manager figure. The insistence that Jang sing in a “funny” voice throughout backfires and saddling him with stutter when he sings Curzio literally disrupts the music.

Laquerre, is as usual, a genial presence on stage, a dim-witted rather than wily Figaro, but he sings at a lower volume than the rest of the cast.  Huhtanen is sprightly and Dye is a much less noble Countess than usual although she sings beautifully.  Vocally, the stars of the show are Giunta and Addis both making their OA debuts.  Giunta’s crystalline voice is a constant pleasure and Addis, with his rich, powerful baritone, is one of the most impressive Counts I’ve seen.  OA’s new production will likely please any newcomer to this opera.  Others, however, may wish Pynkoski had let the singers focus more on Mozart’s wit than on the clichés of farce.    

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2010-04-26.

Photo: Wallis Giunta and Olivier Laquerre. ©Bruce Zinger.