‘The Marriage of Figaro’ at the Madison Opera House combines beauty and thought | Entertainment

Anyone who’s been a bridesmaid of friends knows that a wedding day can be filled with all sorts of last-minute crises, confusion, and confusion.

This is the case — in extreme cases — for the characters in Mozart’s classic opera, The Marriage of Figaro. Directed by nationally acclaimed director Dan Rigazzi of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Figaro, a Madison Opera production, is a musically lively tour of the Spanish countryside, with clever servant Wisdom Overcoming the master, wives teach their husbands honesty, love, and honest forgiveness.

Based on Pierre Beaumarchais’ comedy, this popular opera follows Figaro (Matt Boehler) and his love Suzanne (Jasmine Habersham) The opera was staged again a few years after “The Barber of Seville” on the day the wedding plans were announced. Several parties object, including their lewd employer Count Almaviva (Michael Adams).

The count plots against Suzanne, and the elderly housekeeper, Margaret Gawrysiak, targets Figaro, claiming they must marry because he defaulted on a loan. Hijinks ensue, including cross-dressing, hiding in closets, unlikely family gatherings, arranging secret meetings, numerous cases of mistaken identities and, finally, tricking the Count into falling in love with his own wife, the Countess Almaviva (Elizabeth Cavalier). Lo).

As Figaro, Burrough is the master of these revels. Energetic, confident and intelligent, he easily manipulates the Earl, singing repeatedly: “If, my dear Earl, you want to dance, I’ll conduct.” Boehler’s warm bass deftly handles the challenging score.

As his fiancée Suzanne, Habersham has her own plot too. Her delicate soprano voice runs throughout the performance and blends beautifully with Caballero’s intense and expressive voice in the second-act duet, in which the mistress and her maid write a mischievous letter.

By contrast, Caballero evokes great melancholy in her original aria, bemoaning her husband’s wandering eyes, her voice soaring through the Overture Hall. Both Gawrysiak and Kirsten Lippart (Cherubino) provide good comic relief and ethereal, energetic sopranos in smaller roles.

In the end, Adams’ Count Almaviva is haunted by his passions, driven equally by lust for new conquests and anger when he believes another man covets his neglected wife. But because of his great weakness, he is an easy target for ridicule. Physically backing away every time he gets frustrated, Earl bounces back to plan relentlessly. Adams’ rich baritone voice complements his character’s suggestive overtures to Suzanne, his jealousy and eventual apology.

The work’s richly detailed sets are reminiscent of the interior of a manor house, with walls covered in bucolic murals depicting women and cherubs at play in a lush landscape of turquoise blue and green. Additional wall panels with painted forest scenes can easily be transformed into an outdoor garden for the estate by adding some statues. Men’s garments in breeches, vests and tuxedos are paired perfectly with women’s gowns in pale pink and cream from late 1700s silhouettes.

When The Marriage of Figaro premiered in Vienna in 1786, a journalist gushed: “[It]is a masterpiece of art. It contains so much beauty and so much thought that it can only be seen from drawn from the source of innate genius.” With an orchestra under the direction of Stephanie Rhodes Russell featuring outstanding strings and harpsichord, this work shows why this The opera was an instant hit and eventually earned a place on the standard repertoire.

The Madison Opera House’s final production of the season, “The Marriage of Figaro,” will be performed Sunday at 2:30 p.m. in the Overture Center’s Overture Hall. The three-hour opera is sung in Italian with English subtitles.