Photo courtesy of Florentine Opera
Florentine Opera opened its 2019-’20 season last weekend with a generally successful production of Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), with enduring music by Wolfgang Mozart and a perfect libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte.
As Figaro, bass-baritone Calvin Griffin delivered a performance that could have been on any opera stage in the world. He sang with a sturdy and even sound from the top to the bottom of his voice and brought colorful diction and easy freedom to the part. The young soprano Ariana Douglas has a clear, clean sound and the right spirit for the soubrette role of Susanna.
Baritone Alexander Dobson captured the elegant and arrogant childishness of Count Almaviva, unable to control his sexual impulses (which plays with a difference in the #MeToo era). Susannah Biller has a thick, regal sound well-suited to Countess Almaviva; her third act aria of romantic neglect, “Dove sono,” showed beautiful, legato singing. Abigail Levis was good at portraying the pent-up agitation of pubescent boy Cherubino, though her handsome sound was sometimes a bit uneven. As the matronly Marcellina, Jenni Bank gave a broad, funny portrayal, as did Jeffrey Beruan as Dr. Bartolo. Character tenor Tom Leighton was spicy and lively as gossipmonger Don Basilio.
The scenery from the Opera Company of Philadelphia kept the piece in the 18th century and was simple and serviceable. The direction of Shawna Lucey was humming along just fine until the wedding scene in Act III, which threw in some weak, cheap laughs with absurd, out-of-period dance moves. Her melodramatic direction of Barbarina’s sweet little cavatina was unfortunate for young soprano Kathyrn Henry.
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I was perplexed by the conducting of Clinton Smith, which lacked rhythmic crispness in general. Most of his tempos were well-suited to the score, but a few were a bit off, especially in the finales of Acts II and IV. At times, the ensemble between the singers and orchestra was in question. Smith’s romantic interpretation of Mozart―stretching the tempo in phrases―was inappropriate to Classical era style. What a pity, with the wonderful Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in the pit.
