Over the years the student-led Summer Festival of Music based at the Barber Institute has revealed to us a wealth of young talent and resource, and the annual opera has always been a major highlight.
There are many aspects of this year’s production, Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, which charm and delight. Joshua Rohde’s little orchestra is spirited and well-tuned, Jan Wilke’s harpsichord is lively and alert, design and wardrobe look good (though there are some inexplicable lighting effects, not least beginning with a full moon when the day of madness actually opens in the morning), and Emma Halstead’s direction makes general sense apart from the odd aimless pacing up and down.
Now comes the “but”. Diction is fuzzy – it would have been better to stick to the incisiveness of the original Italian instead of utilising Jeremy Sams’ rather quirky translation (does Cherubino really need to be banished to Southend, of all places?) – and balance with the orchestra not always successful. And casting is not totally convincing.
David Woods is rather wan a presence as the resourceful Figaro, his voice perhaps too soft-toned for the role, and James Lovelock scarcely comes across dangerously as the arch-seducer Almaviva. As his put-upon Countess Holly Singlehurst is efficient and touching; Philippa Althaus is an enchanting Susanna, though her words are sometimes cloudy.
Lauren Morris overdoes Cherubino’s gawkiness, though we can sympathise with a woman in a breeches role having to portray a boy impersonating a peasant girl; even I get confused.
But there was one delight outstanding in this show, the Marcellina of Lara Bienkowska. This is a comparatively minor role, its arias often cut, and stereotypically played as a predatory old bag. But here she was portrayed as a stylish, natty mature woman, Bienkowska projecting with presence and creating a huge wow-factor.
