On a cold November night where better to be than the hinterlands of Seville. It’s summer and the corn on the Almaviva estate is being harvested. As days-in-the-life go, however, this is not one of the Count’s best.

Sir Thomas Allen’s revived production of The Marriage of Figaro for Scottish Opera eschews the revolutionary politics and goes for the jugular of comeuppance.  In the hothouse atmosphere of the Almaviva residence, there is little privacy with people in and out of doors at inconvenient moments. It all thwarts the Count’s plans to have his way with anything in a skirt (except his wife) and especially her maid, Susanna, on the day of her wedding to Figaro, the Count’s valet.

Figaro is having none of it – there is venom in Ben McAteer’s voice for Se vuol ballare, until he works out how to thwart the Count. Meanwhile, Marcellina – a vivacious Marie McLaughlin in plum - has designs on him; her encounter with Susanna is a snarling catfight of faux politesse.

Then Cherubino erupts into the room. Although her body language does not always convince us she’s a randy teenage boy, Hanna Hipp does full justice to Mozart’s music, and she gets the mix of infatuation and petulance just right.

Susanna is no soubrette in Anna Devin’s characterisation. She is sensible and managing, and it is noticeable that her plot with the Countess (Eleanor Dennis) works rather better than Figaro’s. Dennis sings Porgi, amor delightfully, as if a dream, and a ghostlike child passes through the room, personifying the yearning in the aria.   
One almost feels sorry for the Count at times and Samuel Dale Johnson catches his exasperation and irascibility well – not to mention his lechery; he is not a good role model for Cherubino. And now, something else has gone wrong and it turns out Marcellina and Dr Bartolo (Graeme Broadbent) are Figaro’s parents – the sextet Al dolce content / Al fiero tormento is a particularly good example of the excellent ensemble singing. Paul Curievici’s lawyer is almost as peeved as the Count.

Donald Maxwell bumbles around marring plots as the gardener, while Lucy Hall charms as his daughter Barberina.

Devin sings her teasing Act 4 aria Deh, vieni, non tardar as if the musical line were a cat being stroked – it is delicious and sets things up well for the denouement; Almaviva begging forgiveness and his wife granting it.

Simon Higlett’s set is full of nice details – the figurines ranged on shelves in the room-divider, Figaro’s bed arriving in bits on a cart, the stooks of corn outside the house – accentuated by Robert B. Dickson’s lighting. The wedding dance in Act 3 is convincingly interrupted in Steinvor Palsson’s choreography.

The Scottish Opera orchestra, conducted by Timothy Burke, is energetic, keeping up with the fast, farce-like pace on stage from the opening notes of the overture to the jolly ending. It adds, with the chorus-work, to the overall fun and exuberance of this sunny, heart-warming performance.