Le Nozze di Figaro – review

Michael Grandage's Glyndebourne production of Le Nozze di Figaro, first seen at this year's main festival and now revived by Ian Rutherford for the autumn tour, updates Mozart's great comedy to the early 1970s. Some of its more lavish aspects – most notably the sports car in which the Count and Countess arrived at their country estate – have been jettisoned for the tour, and what remains is a restrained, detailed piece of music theatre that at its best is funny, touching and discreetly sexy.

The updating does, however, blur the work's politics at times. Grandage's decision to keep the Spanish setting — a Moorish palace, handsomely designed by Christopher Oram – indicates that we are in the closing years of the Franco regime, with the enormous potential for change in its aftermath. There's little sense, however, of Figaro (Guido Loconsolo) as a potential revolutionary, and in the 70s context, it's John Moore's Count, distrusting ethics of monogamy and hankering after free love, that strikes us as the greater rebel against the prevailing social order.

It's beautifully done, though. Moore, in flares and velvet, acts with wonderful subtlety, and is the dominant presence, vocally and physically. Layla Claire's dark-voiced Countess, more manipulative than most, braves his tantrums with barely controlled hauteur, but forgives him when she finally realises she can give as good as she gets. Loconsolo's warmth and anger is nicely foiled by Joélle Harvey's self-assured, exquisite Susanna. Kathryn Rudge is the gawky Cherubino, Jean Rigby the unusually sympathetic Marcellina. Conductor Jonathan Cohen favours swift speeds and could hold back in places, particularly in the second-act finale, which feels rushed. But it's a fine show, and well worth catching.

What have you been to see lately? Tell us about it on Twitter using #GdnReview