WNO’s Figaro revival crackles with humour and exudes joie de vivre

By Alice Hughes, 19 February 2020

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“the phrase “star quality” is scattered about too liberally, but Mafi really does deserve the label”

Reviewed at Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff on 16 February 2020

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

Welsh National Opera

Carlo Rizzi, Conductor

Tobias Richter, Director

Ralph Koltai, Set Designer

Sue Blane, Costume Designer

Jonathan McGovern, Count Almaviva

Anita Watson, Countess Almaviva

David Ireland, Figaro

Soraya Mafi, Susanna

Anna Harvey, Cherubino

Henry Waddington, Doctor Bartolo

Leah-Marian Jones, Marcellina

Richard Roberts, Don Curzio, Don Basilio

Harriet Eyley, Barbarina

Laurence Cole, Antonio

Max Hoehn, Director

Linus Fellbom, Lighting Designer

Denni Sayers, Choreography

Robin Don, Set Designer

Welsh National Opera Chorus

Welsh National Opera Orchestra

A magnificent Tosca from Welsh National Opera at the Mayflower

David Truslove, 3rd October

WNO imports Edward Dick’s exceptionally fine production, which benefits from from superb casting and outstanding performances led by Natalya Romaniw.

*****

Bancroft and BBCNOW at the Proms: a deeply satisfying Mahler 3

David Karlin, 11th August

Bancroft and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales provide a Mahler 3 of exceptional clarity and forward momentum, with terrific posthorn solos from Corey Morris and Beth Taylor an outstanding soloist.

****1

A dark and disturbing Rigoletto from WNO at the Mayflower

David Truslove, 14th November

Fine performances in a punchy new production that coats this tragic opera in a large dollop of debauchery.

****1

WNO stages Death in Venice for the first time and it’s a triumph

Mark Valencia, 7th March

Olivia Fuchs solves the problems of Britten's thorny opera in a brilliant new production that hits the heights, featuring Mark Le Brocq as earthbound scholar, Gustav von Aschenbach.

*****

Musical performances keep WNO's new Così afloat

Mark Valencia, 6th March

Max Hoehn takes Così‘s subtitle, La scuola degli amanti (The School for Lovers), and connects it to Monty Python’s sex education sketch in The Meaning of Life. What larks, eh?

***11

Stacey Alleaume leads WNO's emotionally-charged Traviata

David Truslove, 24th November

Leading an international cast in a still-sumptuous revival in Southampton's Mayflower, Stacey Alleaume gives a sovereign performance as the ill-fated courtesan Violetta.

****1

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Alice Hughes

Alice studied Music and French Literature at the universities of Cardiff and Oxford. An avid concert-goer from a young age, she has a particular fondness for the music of Debussy, Satie and Rachmaninov and a lifelong interest in Paris as a hub of musical activity from the Belle Epoque onwards.