Opera July 2003 Rodney Miles

Tony Britten's productions for MTL don't stand still: this Figaro has been significantly developed since I last saw and enjoyed it. The Count, or rather Sir Michael, is now in the midst of a bid for the Conservative leadership, and there are jokes about the Tories' campaign against the BBC, about Jeremy Paxman and about Barry Legg (who he? A week in politics is a very long time).The updating extends to the Countess's ribbon, now her knickers, and to Figaro being told about Cherubino's commission by text message. Figaro turns out to be conceived on an organic cabbage patch at Highgrove, or rather a sandbag thereon (a sand bag!?!). Oh yes, Britten's dialogue is smart as paint.
There are many cuts (don't tell anyone but I never miss Venite, inginocchiatevi, which doesn't advance the plot at all) to bring the show in at two and a half hours, which is how long Britten thinks a musical should last, and this is very much Figaro-the Musical. The slyest and longest cut comes with the e-mail duet: the countess presses 'send' on her laptop and exits with Suzanna. Basillio comes in, automatically enters 'sent mail', and leaves it open for Figaro to read: cut to a perfectly motivated Aprite un po. Neat or what?

Fine cast: Nigel Richards, an ebullient comic and good singer; Katherine Schuppert as sweet Suzanna...; Julkian Forsyth a horribly believable Tory MP (Britten isn't shy about his political views); Stephen Ashfield an equally creditable Tory-boy PA on the make as Basillio; the experienced Simon Masterson-Smith doubling Bartolo and Antonio (very authentic, and brilliant in both roles); Rosamund Shelley a glamourous Marcelina..Melanie Gutteridge, an actress who had never sung on stage before, was a quite wonderful Cherubino. He was shy about singing Voi che sapete ('I haven't demo-ed it yet') and then slouched like the most casual pop singer and sang it beautifully indeed. And in her all-purpose, all-gender Oxfam costume, Gutteridge looked disturbingly, androgenously gorgeous.

Nicholas Bloomfield directed his band of six from behind and above the stage (neat arrangements by Britten and Terry Davies) and the audience was kept laughing merrily throughout the 150 minutes. I kept wondering, subversively, whether MTL on tour to similar venues might not do more good for the cause of opera than the 'respectable' (and underfunded) ETO. Their dramatic values are those of the West End, and there's nothing wrong with their music, either. Just a thought.