Longborough is several cuts above your average country-house opera. For a start, it boasts an auditorium which can cram in no fewer than 504 punters and a pit which can accommodate 60 musicians in comfort.
The production standards are so high that what we get here is no mere busk-through between the intervals for champagne and smoked salmon. Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro is ideally suited to this idyllic venue
Jenny Miller’s production comes up with some interesting new ideas, chief of which is the omnipresence of various Breughel-esque servants, eavesdropping, encouraging and warning and occasionally acting as stage-furniture (such as the crucial locked door in Act II). The device throws the dramatic action into realistic relief: events do not happen in isolation, but as part of the unfolding farce of this “day of follies”.
There are times, however, when I could wish for more reaction in the stage-business: Almaviva’s discovery of Cherubino hidden beneath furnishing drapes and Figaro’s realisation that Marcellina is his mother are prime examples here.
Jane Bruce’s set designs make imaginative use of simple geometric shapes (rapidly becoming a Longborough hallmark and resourcefully apt), allowing the minimum of clutter on this usefully-raked stage.
The young cast is a constant delight, their teamwork is heartening and there are no stars or passengers within the complement. But the bridal couple deserve special praise, with Nicholas Merryweather a sympathetically bluff Figaro and Martene Grimson utterly captivating as Susanna, both visually and in the pert sweetness of her vocal delivery.
Gianluca Marciano conducts his crisp orchestra with such loving and dramatic alertness (and the harpsichord continuo is brilliantly imaginative).
Rating: 4/5
