For those of us who occasionally like their culture up the (very) posh end of things there’s one great highlight in the Midlands theatre-going year and it’s the annual visit of Glyndebourne’s touring opera to the Regent Theatre Stoke on Trent.
Over the years I’ve seen some truly mind-blowing stuff from them – a heart-breaking La Traviata, a production of Britten’s The Turn Of The Screw which had some of the most stunningly original production values I’ve ever seen and most recently Humperdinck’s Hansel Und Gretel which raised the very spectre of Auschwitz with its commodified children.
Arts cuts mean cutbacks, so this year instead of the sometimes three operas they’re only managing to bring one but it’s a cracker, The Marriage of Figaro. I said they’re up the posh end but ironically Mozart wrote for the masses not the toffs. This story filled with humour shows the aristos from the point of view of their servants who are just as clever and more essential to the scheme of things than their masters and mistresses.
It’s fashionable now to bring opera (and ballet) up to date. Here however Director Michael Grandage cleverly sets his scene not in the immediate present but in the picturesquely recent past – about 1969 I’d guess, the men in brocade flares, their ladies wafting in kaftans and platform clogs. The sets illustrate the Seville setting by elegantly referencing Granada’s world-heritage Alhambra palace. For the total effect, topically enough in their fiftieth year, think the Stones in Marrakesh.
The silly plot of jealous lovers is beautifully brought to life by a sterling cast who can act as well as sing. Guido Loconsolo is a winsome Figaro while Anna Devin is delightful as his fiancée Susanna. Daniel Norman gets it just right as the huff and puff jealous Count Almaviva and Layla Claire is simply marvellous as his Countess. Special mention must go to the pure-voiced Kathryn Rudge as Cherubino.
All ended in celebration as we might expect, in a finale which brought roars of well-merited applause.
La Nozze di Figaro will be reprised on Saturday (December 8).