From left to right; Cherubino (Cécile Muhire), Count Almaviva (Tyler Duncan), Figaro (Donovan Singletary) (Photo credit: David Cooper)

I saw the Sunday matinee of Mozart’s great opera The Marriage of Figaro, which did not disappoint, offering a lively and engaging production featuring some wonderful singing with Timothy Vernon leading members of the Victoria Symphony with great style. Directed by Morris Panych and designed by Ken MacDonald, inspired by the artwork of Joan Miró, this was an elegant afternoon at the Royal Theatre. We begin with Count Almaviva, well played by Tyler Duncan, trying to claim his feudal rights to bed his servants. He has his eye on Susanna (Suzanne Rigden), Figaro’s betrothed, and the plot spins around her attempts to dissuade the Count via trickery and disguise, typical of Commedia dell’arte operas. The Countess Almaviva, beautifully sung by Sydney Baedke, is well aware of her husband’s wandering eye, so she participates in the plans to set him straight. We have subplots involving revelations of Figaro’s true parentage, and page Cherubino, who longs for his mistress, but in the end will settle for Barbarina, the gardener’s daughter. 

Panych, a Governor General’s award winner for playwriting, mines all of the comic potential from the opera, to the sellout audience’s delight. For me, the women had the slight edge on the male voices, with a duet late in the opera between Susanna and her mistress squeezing some tears out of me. The set design was another standout, with MacDonald’s bold choice paying off in spades. Comic relief is seen in the characters of Marcellina (Megan Latham), who has struck a deal with Figaro that, if he doesn’t pay his debt to her, she will force him to marry her, and lawyer Dr. Bartolo (Peter McGillivray), that is until the identity of Figaro’s parents is revealed to him. The costumes, designed by Nancy Bryant, worked well, especially the Countess’s dress in the second act, a fiery red satin concoction that looked wonderful on her. The lighting by Eric Champoux was effective, although I found the final act in the garden at night to be a bit underlit. Overall, this was a wonderful production with plenty to enjoy, highly recommended! You can read more about the show here, with a final performance tomorrow night (Tuesday, April 9th): https://pacificopera.ca/event/the-marriage-of-figaro/