Mozart: ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ : Soloists, Orchestra of The Royal College of Music, cond. Michael Rosewell. The Royal College of Music Benjamin Britten International Opera School, London 25. 6.2007. (ME)


Ex-alumni of the Benjamin Britten Opera School are everywhere these days – just a few years after graduating, Andrew Kennedy won the Song Prize at the Cardiff Singer of the World competition, and is the soloist in this year’s Last Night of the Proms: Elizabeth Watts has just won the same prize, Jonathan Lemalu is starring all over the world, and Anna Leese is gracing the stage at Covent Garden. Small wonder, then, that one hastens to a new production in the hope of catching yet another emerging star. On this occasion, however, stars were thin in the sky despite much promise.

Figaro is a huge challenge even for a major opera house, and that a music college can mount it with a double cast and still produce high standards is a triumph which owes much to Neil Mackie, who this year stands down as Head of Vocal Studies after twelve years of stellar achievement. The strongest vocal performances in this first night cast came from the Susanna of Sophie Bevan and the Figaro of James Oldfield. I was somewhat baffled as to why Susanna is seen as pregnant, given that her wedding veil is supposed to be ‘symbola d’honestŕ, candida vesta’, and that the whole plot hinges on the Count’s having supposedly renounced the Droit de Seigneur. Nevertheless, Sophie coped well with the characterisation imposed on her, singing with verve and musicality despite one or two glitches in her aria. Her Figaro was as yet rather wooden in terms of acting, but his is a highly promising baritone, potentially with enough heft to fill this rôle.

There was a very youthful Cherubino in the shape of Sigríđur Ósk Kristjánsdóttir – a lovely voice just wanting a little more polish, and much evident emerging talent in the Basilio of Ben Johnson and the Barbarina of Stephanie Edwards. Vojtĕch Šafařík and Pumeza Matshikiza did not make much impact as the Almavivas – she seemed ill at ease and hampered by her costumes, and only in her second aria did we hear hints of a special quality. He certainly looks the part, and suggested the arrogant nobleman with aplomb, but as yet his voice lacks colour and individuality.

As always at the BBIOS, the production (James Conway) was simple, clear and very much in the service of the music and plot (except for that pregnancy and Figaro’s inexplicable counting of money during ‘Cinque, dieci’ when he is supposed to be measuring for the bed). The lighting, by Matthew Haskins, was very beautiful, and Agnes Treplin’s designs managed to suggest both the Countess’ boudoir and the garden with equal effectiveness. The RCM Opera Orchestra played wonderfully for Michael Rosewell – as always here, you forgot that you were listening to student musicians, so high was the standard.

An enjoyable but not revelatory evening: I suspect that things might have sharpened up in later performances, but it is a measure of the expectations generated by the RCM that one can be slightly disappointed in a production which fell just short of memorable.

Melanie Eskenazi