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Le Nozze di Figaro

Composer

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Librettist

Lorenzo da Ponte after Beaumarchais

Venue and Dates

Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London

Opening night, 11 September 1995

There were two casts

Conductor

Bernard Haitink

Director

Johannes Schaaf

Performers

Second cast:

Il Conte di Almaviva: Simon Keenlyside

La Contessa Almaviva: Cheryl Studer

Figaro: Ferrucio Furlanetto

Susanna: Barbara Bonney

Cherubino: Helen Schneiderman

Marcellina: Yvonne Howard

Don Bartolo: Michael Druiett

Don Basilio: Ryland Davies

Don Curzio: John Dobson

Barberina: Deborah York

Antonio: Jeremy White

Contadina:

Choir and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House

.

Notes

..

 

 

What the critics say

 

Alan Blyth, Opera, November 1995 (on the  September 26th performance)

“Slow the first night of this revival may have been: this initial performance with the alternate (emphatically not second) cast was from the very start brisk and vital.”

“Making a virtue of his slight figure, Simon Keenlyside gave us a petulant, impetuous Almaviva who possibly hasn’t really come to terms with his own libidinous character. Keenlyside’s singing was at once mellow and incisive, and sensibly he didn’t force his tone in the interests of mere volume.”

 

 

Extract from the British Journal by Tom Sutcliffe for Opera News January 6 1996

http://www.metoperafamily.org/operanews/_archive/1696/britjourn.1696.html

The Covent Garden season got off to a dull start with a revival of Johannes Schaaf's distinctly odd Le Nozze di Figaro (Sept. 11). Bernard Haitink's conducting was somnambulistic, Thomas Allen's Count voiceless. The biggest disappointment, however, was Randi Stene's Cherubino, which should have been delightful (she was a terrific Octavian in Paris). But stepping into a dead or dying production was a liability her agents should have spared her. Felicity Lott pulled the performance into shape briefly with a stylish "Dove sono," and Andrea Rost carried off Susanna well. Of special merit in the second cast was Simon Keenlyside's fervent Count.