Le nozze di Figaro, Glyndebourne, review

Le nozze di Figaro is the heart of the Glyndebourne idyll. Performed nearly 500 times here since it inaugurated the festival in 1934, its humane spirit has been transmitted with a warm glow through beautiful interpretations by Carl Ebert and Peter Hall.

But this inheritance puts a heavy burden on any director, especially since the most recent production, by Graham Vick, was a rather soulless affair.

When I tell you that Michael Grandage has now updated the setting to the mid-1960s, you might wearily assume you were in for further cynical deconstruction. But you would be quite wrong, because this is a Figaro of rare grace, naturalness and charm.

What Grandage’s period change powerfully suggests is that this is an opera about young people, who don’t know very much about themselves. The Count becomes a petulant playboy, accustomed to getting his way by flinging money around; his wife has only just discovered that wealth does not bring happiness. The Figaros seem their equals in every respect except their bank balances: they are stroppy paid employees, not indentured servants.

One could argue that Grandage has hereby weakened the sense of violated deference and hierarchy on which the plot hinges, but this doesn’t matter when the characters are so sharply defined and their relationships so keenly observed. The solidity of the designer Christopher Oram’s rendering of a shady, fretted, tiled Moorish palace enhances the credibility of what we see: this is a Figaro you can believe in.

Robin Ticciati’s conducting is seamlessly complementary. His tempi are never assertive and the singers never appear bullied: he just lets Mozart sing.

The cast amounts to a classic Glyndebourne ensemble. Sally Matthews sings the Countess’s arias with perfect poise, while Lydia Teuscher makes a delightfully practical Susanna.

Audun Iversen and Vito Priante are well-matched as the Count and Figaro, while Isabel Leonard is an enchanting disco-bunny of a Cherubino. The rest of the cast is terrific, and the whole thing moves like lightning. Pure joy.

Until Aug 22. Tickets: 01273 815000