Contessa perdono - The Marriage of Figaro
|
Jan Chalupecky |
Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro is one of the best
known and best loved operas in the repertory, the result of the
brilliant collaboration of Mozart and his librettist Lorenzo da
Ponte. It is crammed with pithy humor, emotions that are universally
felt and understood across cultures and some of the most beautiful
music ever written in my opinion. The pacing of the action, in terms
of theatrics, is near perfect—never a dull tedious moment.
|
Frantisek Zahrandnicek |
This
Figaro, presented Friday evening, February 3, 2012 at the
Theater of the Estates in Prague, was the most enjoyable production
that I have seen so far, bar none (and I've seen quite a few). Right
from the opening notes of the Overture by conductor Jan Chalupecky
you could tell that you were in for an auditory feast: crisp, clear,
vibrant and pure Mozart. A moment of doubt crept in with Figaro's
opening lines measuring the size of his marriage bed to see if would
fit the room. The baritone, Frantisek Zahrandnicek, was not quite
sharp and forceful enough, maybe a little off the beat. In fact, he
was the weakest link, along with the mezo-soprano who played
Cherubino, Stanislava Jirku, in an otherwise superbly cast
production. Weak link doesn't mean poor quality singers, just not as
WOW as the rest of the cast.
|
Stanislava Jirku |
The sopranos who sang the Countess
Almaviva (Marie Fajtoka) and Suzanna (Jana Kacirkova) were pure ear
candy—probably two of the finest interpretations of those roles I
have so far listened to.
|
Marie Fajtoka |
We
had a box entirely to ourselves with an excellent view of the stage
and total privacy. So, I surreptitiously (bad boy doing a no-no)
tried a couple of videos. The audio quality doesn't do justice
to the beautiful voices, but I put up a link to YouTube above anyway. And so the house prohibition against making
recordings wins.
The
baritone who played the Count Almaviva (the same Martin Barta I raved
about in the role of Rigoletto recently) was extraordinary in the
closing lines of the opera where he begs forgiveness (see YouTube clip) for his
philandering transgressions and neglect of his unhappy wife, the
Countess. Her notes of forgiveness along with her perfect delivery
seemed celestially inspired—divine forgiveness shall we say.
|
Martin Barta |
|
Jana Kacirkova |
The
SO and I were almost literally walking on air, cold as it was, on our
way back home. Sharing a midnight snack we found ourselves burbling
the usual adjectives and superlatives, which are becoming the norm
after each performance. I jokingly said, biting into my peanut butter
on toast, that we are beginning to sound like broken records. Perhaps
it is my fate to be iconoclastic.
|
private box with good view of stage |
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