The man in power is an entitled rich dude with a blond pompadour, a loose relationship with the truth, and a stunning wife that he regularly cheats on. Donald Trump? What would make you think that? We are talking here about Count Almaviva in Mozart’s 1786 opera The Marriage of Figaro, now onstage at Lyric Opera.
Yes, the vote is in, and what we can count on for sure is four more years of groan-worthy but irresistible Trump references.
The Marriage of FigaroThrough 11/30: Wed 11/13 7 PM, Sun 11/17 2 PM, Tue 11/19 7 PM, Thu 11/21 2 PM, Sun 11/24 2 PM, Wed 11/27 2 PM, Sat 11/30 7:30 PM; audio description, touch tour, and sound shirt Sun 11/17, audio description Sun 11/24; Lyric Opera, 20 N. Wacker, 312-827-5600, lyricopera.org, $59-$355, in Italian with English supertitles
Like our leader-elect, the Count relies on more or less loyal staff and allies to do his bidding, notably his valet, Figaro. The Count is also much more transactional than steadfast. For example, having formerly opposed a longstanding rule that was an outrageous violation of the rights of women, he blithely flips and seeks to enforce it when it serves his own purposes.
In the Count’s case, the rule is the antiquated “droit du seigneur” or right of the lord of the manor to spend the wedding night with the bride of any of his subjects. The bride is Susanna, his wife’s maid and Figaro’s betrothed. The entire opera takes place on their wedding day.
Of course, the opera’s a farce, so there can’t be any parallel to current reality.
It’s also three-and-a-half hours long (including one intermission). For audiences who couldn’t go home and put the record on, that must have been a good thing. In our faster-paced, electronically-enabled age, and in spite of Mozart’s brilliant and nuanced score, it could drag in spots. That’s likely what inspired director Barbara Gaines, founder and former artistic director at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, to pack this production (which premiered at Lyric in 2015) with eye candy in the form of nonstop antic stage business and popsicle-colored, over-the-top costumes by Susan Mickey. James Noone’s sets, in contrast, are minimalist, but just as arch—a few statues or chandeliers (or a huge bed), set against a weird, bland swoop of wood paneling that has its own surprising comic moment. Supertitles by Colin Ure update and condense Lorenzo Da Ponte’s libretto to spiky modern vernacular.
The source for this “opera buffa,” which rather gently jabs the aristocracy, was a more sharply political comedy—a 1778 play, The Crazy Day or the Marriage of Figaro, by Pierre-Augustin Beaumarchais that is said to have helped spark the French Revolution.
The current production features two sublime sopranos: Ying Fang, as the savvy servant Susanna, and Federica Lombardi as the regal but distraught Countess. Their class-bridging sisterhood drives the opera’s convoluted plot and their voices (memorably blending in the second act “letter” duet), provide the most transporting moments in a production that’s well-sung all around.
Bass-baritone Gordon Bintner seems like a natural as the rascally Count, as does bass-baritone Peter Kellner as his servant-class counterpart, Figaro. Mezzo-soprano Kayleigh Decker is the hormonally-distracted and adorable pageboy, Cherubino. Bass-baritone Nicholas Newton as Dr. Bartolo and mezzo-soprano Sarah Mesko as Susanna’s would-be rival, Marcellina, get to reveal the opera’s funniest secret. Guest conductor Erina Yashima (a former CSO apprentice) leads the Lyric Opera Orchestra and chorus.
There’s a glorious happy ending. Let’s hope.
