Farcical elements to the fore in Eyre’s witty new Figaro

By Mark Pullinger, 23 September 2014

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“Peter Mattei’s Count... the very spit of Basil Fawlty, the much put-upon hotelier in Fawlty Towers”

Reviewed at Lincoln Center: Metropolitan Opera House, New York City on 22 September 2014

Mozart, Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro)

Metropolitan Opera

James Levine, Conductor

Sir Richard Eyre, Director

Rob Howell, Set Designer, Costume Designer

Amanda Majeski, Countess Almaviva

Marlis Petersen, Susanna

Isabel Leonard, Cherubino

Peter Mattei, Count Almaviva

Ildar Abdrazakov, Figaro

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Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.

Farcical elements to the fore in Eyre’s witty new Figaro as Met Opera season opens