Opera review: Le Nozze di Figaro at Glyndebourne Festival

This is the fourth time this year I have been to this glorious opera house and the weather had, until now, varied between cold, drizzly and torrential. Last Sunday, however, despite a week of weather reports forecasting gloom and rain, the sun shone gloriously and at last I could enjoy a proper picnic on the lawns during their traditional long interval. 

It was as though the rain gods had accepted that they could do their worst with Wagner, Rossini and Janacek, but the first night of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro was something they did not dare spoil and this perfect production truly deserved perfect weather. 

The consistency with which Glyndebourne presents outstanding productions is hugely impressive, always adding delicious touches that add to the original intentions of the composer and librettist rather than detract from them by imposing a director's own opinions. The current Marriage of Figaro, a revival of Michael Grandage's glorious production first seen in 2012, is an excellent example.

This is, after all, a comedy. And the idea of setting it around the 1960s, with Count Almaviva arriving on stage towards the end of the overture in a glaring red car just adds to the outrageous fun of the whole story. Above all, it provides the possibility of deliberately incompetent disco dancing to Mozart's music, which is performed by the whole cast to gloriously comic effect.

The use of an impressively large rotating stage allowed rapid scene changes, as the view changes from one room to another of the Count's mansion, letting the action move without pause as the various characters play their parts in pursuing or trying to frustrate Almaviva's plans to have his evil way with Susanna before she marries Figaro.

Many years ago, I decided to transfer to tape the best bits of a recording of this opera which I had on a record. The only trouble was that I soon found there was nothing I could leave out. The Marriage of Figaro seemed to me to be Mozart's Greatest Hits one after the other. (Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute are Volumes 2 and 3 of the Greatest Hits, of course.)

On this occasion, the entire cast seemed to capture the true Glyndebourne spirit and relish the opportunity to sing Mozart's music while having great fun doing so.

Rosa Feola was a delicious Susanna, Davide Luciano was a splendid Figaro, Natalia Kawalek was a delightful Cherubino and Gyula Orendt's Almaviva was a perfect cross between Laurence Llewellyn Bowen and Alan Rickman, the first when trying suavely to seduce Susanna and the second when furious at Figaro or Cherubino.

The rest of the cast too did not put a foot wrong (except in their disco-dancing), with Golda Schultz in particularly impressive voice as the Countess Almaviva.