The Marriage of Figaro
Birmingham Hippodrome
from Richard Lutz
Two pleasant things flow from Wales into Birmingham. One is water. The other is music from Welsh National Opera.
The latter is in residence at the city’s Hippodrome for The Marriage of Figaro and the production merrily swings along with swooping Mozart music that you would expect from a man whose name still rings bells more than two centuries after his death.
This is an opera that is jolly and joyful- no other way to put it. Even if you vaguely know classical music or opera, you will recognise alot of what you hear; notably the overture which is Mozart with all the soaring and arabesque bravado you would expect.
Figaro is played/sung by the appropriately named David Soar and his lover Susanna by Elizabeth Watts who really steals the show brilliant comic timing and mugging . The notable set design, all Spanish 1930’s grand architecture, is from the drawing board of Paco Azorin.
Lots of double entendres and cheeky sexual allusions. So much so that the initial stage performance was banned in Austria- now that’s something to slap across the bill posters when it opened back in the 1786.
Last performance: 10 March, then touring