When their opening night was washed out by the ‘weather bomb’ on Friday 12th, the omens did not look good for Opera in a Day’s Bay Garden’s production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. But their performance on the ‘rain day’, on 15 March, proved more that just a triumph over the weather gods. Bubbling with energy and wit, the cast of emerging and established singers kept the audience chuckling through Mozart’s delicious music, while enjoying the perfectly still evening in the Canna House heritage garden to the backdrop of a fiery sunset over Day’s Bay.

Such a production is worlds away from the reputation of the source play by Beaumarchais as ‘the prologue to the French revolution’, due to its caustic satire of aristocratic privilege. As the play was banned in Vienna in 1784, Mozart’s librettist da Ponte not only changed the language to Italian but adjusted the focus from the war of the classes to the battle of the sexes – an age old theme that clearly rang true for the 21^st century antipodean audience.

The story centres around the efforts of the valet Figaro and his betrothed, Susanna, to marry without their employer the Count claiming through coercion his recently abolished feudal right to the bride. Susanna is maid to the Countess Rosina who, equally determined to frustrate her husband, schemes with Susanna to catch him out in his philandering.

Complications are piled on by the oversexed teenage pageboy, Cherubino, who finds ‘his’ way under nearly every set of skirts; a drunken gardener and his ditsy daughter; and especially the Count’s support of a plot to force Figaro – through an unpaid debt – to marry Marcellina, the middle-aged housekeeper of the Countess’ former guardian Bartolo. He in turn wants revenge on Figaro for previously facilitating the marriage of Rosina to the Count instead of himself.

After multiple machinations, the lead plotters turn out to be Figaro’s long-lost parents, so the day ends with a double wedding. The evening sees a series of attempted seductions and misunderstandings with the Countess and Susanna disguised as each other, and ends with the Count literally brought to his knees to beg forgiveness of his Countess while Figaro dances his Susanna into the sunset.

As the final act is set in a night-time garden (allowing for plenty of identity swapping), Figaro is ideal for an outdoor production. Director Sara Brodie used no introduced set elements, instead making inventive use of the modern Canna House’s patio and existing garden furniture for the Acts I and II indoor scenes, and the lower terrace levels and surrounding shrubbery for the Act III recognition and wedding scenes, and the Act IV garden shenanigans.

Brodie enhanced the comedy by melding local references into the English version of the libretto and the action. So, while the singers mostly wore 18^th century costume, Cherubino fell into the spa pool as he leapt out of the Countess’ window to escape the Count, resulting in the gardener’s complaints of damage done his lilo (instead of the libretto’s broken flowerpot). The unfortunate pageboy was then banished to Seatoun for military service by a wetsuited Count just back from surfing the Bay!

While most of the adaptations were successful, one that didn’t work for me was the rather mannered mime at the start telling the prequel story of the Count and Countess’ courtship (as told in Beaumarchais’ The Barber of Seville). Such background is what programme notes are for, not to mention the master dramatist da Ponte’s inclusion of the back story in his sung dialogue (‘recitativo’) and Mozart’s genius for musically portraying character in the solo arias and relationships in the ensembles – it’s all there.

This brings me to my only real beef with this production – that so much of the opera simply wasn’t there. It was cut by nearly a third. While I understand the time constraints of an outdoor show in which the hour interval for a picnic in the historic garden was one of the attractions, several wonderful comic scenes were cut to the bone and much of the supporting characters’ music was left out altogether (hence requiring the prequel). While some arias are usually cut for continuity reasons and ensemble repeats removed to reduce duration, I felt short-changed this time. I especially missed the superbly catty duet between Marcellina and Susanna that expresses their rivalry so well (and it’s only a couple of minutes long).

Not just the story but also the comedy suffered from the cuts. The omission of two of Susanna’s short arias during the byplay with Cherubino in the Countess’ boudoir meant much of the built-in slapstick of the page’s escape was lost (blink and you missed it), plus the teaching of the ‘boy’ to walk as a girl in female disguise. This can be a scene-stealer for a talented Cherubino (as we had), along with the layered wit of a girl playing a boy playing a girl. (The pageboy is a ‘trouser role’ sung by a mezzo soprano, allowing Mozart close harmony in the same octave with the female roles.) But in the end, as with other masterworks like Shakespeare’s great plays, the opera Figaro triumphed because it still works no matter what is done with it.

Much credit for this goes to Music Director Michael Vinten for his expert splicing of the score so the cuts were seamless. His orchestral reduction was masterly, with the halfsize band (a piano for the strings) amply supporting the singers in the amazingly good acoustic provided by the house walls and garden structure. Vinten deserves special mention for maintaining the acoustic balance and (mostly) the ensemble through tempo changes despite being positioned so his back was either to the band or the singers!

The other triumph of the show was of Figaro himself as portrayed by Daniel O’Connor, a local singer who has already taken part in NBR NZ Opera’s Emerging Artists programme. He brought assured comic talent to the role, and bounded over terraces and through bushes with engaging enthusiasm. His singing became stronger during the show, with his aria ranting against the unfaithfulness of women (‘Aprite un po’ quegl’occhi’ / Fools, ’til your eyes are opened), in response to Susanna’s supposed betrayal, showing strong dramatic tone and phrasing, compelling in his furious heartbreak. Definitely a young singer to watch.

Well matched with Figaro was Susanna, played by another well-known young local singer, Barbara Graham, who has also been an NZO Emerging Artist and is about to embark for Paris. Her singing was always lyrical and as charming as her presence, especially her teasingly seductive rendering of Susanna’s lovely aria ‘Deh vieni non tardar’ (Come, do not tarry beloved). But she showed her real dramatic ability in the angry scenes with Figaro when she thought he’d given in to Marcellina (instead of discovering his mother) and their Act IV duet. In the latter she is dressed as the Countess and Figaro is pretending to seduce her, while really knowing she is Susanna. Her vocal colours here made her confused emotions very clear, and their passionate reconciliation when Figaro convinced her he was teasing was the show’s romantic moment.

One of the delights of the setting was the way the local birds joined in with the singers, especially the tui dueting with Susanna and the Countess in their solos. This first occurred during the Countess’ famous lament aria ‘Porgi amor’ (Gods of love). Since the lady of the house was herself singing the Countess, perhaps the tui had practiced with her before?!

Rhona Fraser in fact had a triple role in the show, as producer as well as hostess and Countess – for which supreme effort she is to be sincerely congratulated. Her portrayal of the role was rather unusual, with headache remedies, self-help books and nervy gestures making the Countess more a desperate housewife than the more usual poignant, almost tragic, still centre of the opera that her music suggests. However, this fitted well with the bubbly unstuffy tone of Sara Brodie’s clever direction.

Brodie’s playful melding of periods was most evident in the Count, sung by Matthew Landreth from Otago who is a NZ Opera Resident Artist. Not only was he wearing a wetsuit during his suitably steamed-up argument with the Countess in her boudoir, but he stripped down to gold lamé togs during his gloating Act III aria ‘Vedro mentr’io sospiro’ (Must I forgo my pleasure), when he thinks Susanna has given in to him. His singing was always suitably energetic and boastful, but he deserves special mention in this aria for the aplomb with which he sang all the runs and high notes while nearly naked and doing all sorts of exercises, including press-ups! While all this highlighted the Count’s self-satisfaction, it was a pity Landreth did not get a chance to show more of the Count’s lascivious side since another cut was the clever duet with Susanna when she confuses her ‘yes’ and ‘no’s to his seduction proposals.

The NZ School of Music student Bianca Andrew was ideally cast as the pageboy Cherubino, with her warm voice, appealingly cheeky stage presence and long legs. She threw herself into Cherubino’s hormone-led antics with great verve, so much so that occasionally they distracted her from vocal concerns. But experience will help cure this and she has great potential.

Vocal immaturity was a drawback for young Sophie Mackie, but she otherwise made a suitably naïve and pretty Barbarina (the gardener’s daughter). The chorus of village girls, Olivia Martin and Rose Blake, were tuneful and charming.

The performance of the sub-plot cast was uniformly strong, as to be expected from such established local singers. Annabelle Cheetham made such a sparkling impact on her first brief appearance that the lack of her following catty duet with Susanna was immediately frustrating. Her switch from Figaro’s spurned bride to his loving mother was handled to great comic effect.

Stalwart of the Wellington musical scene Roger Wilson garnered plenty of laughs in his double role as the scheming Bartolo (nicely sheepish as he admits Figaro’s paternity) and as the bumbling old gardener Antonio, especially when lamenting his punctured crocodile lilo! Last, but certainly not least, John Beaglehole clearly relished his double role as Bartolo’s side-kick Basilio and the stammering notary Don Curzio, and was a stalwart musical presence in the large ensembles.

All in all, Figaro was indeed a triumph, and not least because all 200 seats for each of the three performances were sold out in advance (despite the Arts Festival being in full swing across the harbour). All that the publicity had promised was delivered, and since there is clearly plenty of demand for such sylvan delights and the performance standard was so high, I for one hope that this company will similarly ‘stage’ future shows.
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