Le nozze di Figaro, Royal Opera, Covent Garden, review

Le nozze di Figaro by the Royal Opera at Covent Garden is perfectly decent - but is that good enough?

Aleksandra Kurzak and Lucas Meachem in 'Le nozze di Figaro'
Resourceful: Aleksandra Kurzak and Lucas Meachem in 'Le nozze di Figaro' Credit: Photo: Nigel Norrington

After a cracking start with Il Trittico and Faust, the Royal Opera’s 2012-13 season seems to have drifted into the doldrums and I can’t in all honesty forecast much of a wind over the coming months to blow it out. Fresh faces and a new injection of ideas and energy are badly needed at Covent Garden – at the moment, English National Opera is looking and sounding much sparkier.

This latest revival of David McVicar’s six-year-old production of Le nozze di Figaro completes a trilogy of return visits to familiar stagings of Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte, all with casts that on paper can hardly be called thrillingly novel or exciting.

Figaro might have looked the best bet, but the odds slipped when the announced Count and Countess Almaviva, Simon Keenlyside and Kate Royal, dropped out, to be replaced by two Americans, Lucas Meachem and Rachel Willis-Sørensen.

Both turned in respectable performances, though neither will set the Thames on fire. Meachem is a hulking great quarterback of a baritone, who sang his big Act 3 aria with some sensitivity. But his stage personality is bland, and he failed to communicate the Count’s crucial anxiety that his grasp on authority might be slipping.

Willis-Sørensen seemed no great shakes as an actress either, and her Countess was emotionally rather blank. In Porgi amor she sounded pardonably nervous, but she struck vocal form as Act 2 proceeded and rose to a confident if unmoving account of Dove sono.

Figaro and Susanna were more on the ball. Ildebrando d’Arcangelo was the best thing about the evening – his easy, generous, resonant bass and amiable personality are a nice fit for the ambitious manservant – and although I find Aleksandra Kurzak’s soprano on the penny-plain side, she is a good musician who made a conventionally pert and resourceful Susanna.

Anna Bonitatibus’s Cherubino scored with the audience, but I couldn’t help thinking how many underemployed young British singers could have sung those arias just as well as she did.

The supporting cast was excellent, and McVicar’s elegantly designed production had been conscientiously dusted off. I only wish it was less busy, less desperate to charm. The newly knighted Antonio Pappano doubled his affectionate conducting with some witty continuo playing.

The sum of it is a perfectly decent show. But, at Covent Garden, is perfectly decent really good enough?

In rep until March 2. Tickets: 020 7304 4000