The word “genius” gets tossed around a lot in the music world, but most agree that Wolfgang A. Mozart deserves the accolade. Conductor Steven Smith and stage director Lillian Groag, who are collaborating on Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro,” have no trouble citing examples of the composer’s amazing talents. The Virginia Opera production of this comic masterpiece will open Saturday in Norfolk.
“It’s one of those perfect operas I could do every year,” says Groag. “It’s brilliantly written, and the music is mischievous and witty.”
For Smith as well, the proof lies on the page.
“What’s been fascinating is to realize the depth of Mozart’s music…so much goes on in the harmonic structure,” says Smith. “He has this amazing ability to write music that is specifically connected to every character but is also universal,”
Despite the complexities Mozart used to compose this particular opera, says Smith, he also fashioned a work that’s simple to follow and easy to understand, even for first-time opera-goers. Even without the surtitles that translate the Italian into English, he says, you can watch the production and listen to the music and understand everything that’s going on.
The title of the opera in Italian, “Le Nozze di Figaro,” actually means “the wedding day of Figaro,” according to Groag. When the opera opens, Figaro and his bride, Susanna, are getting ready for their big day. One big obstacle is to distract their employer, the philandering Count Almaviva, who plans to bed Susanna before the wedding. They enlist the help of the Countess, Almaviva’s wife, to expose his plan.
Love courses through “The Marriage of Figaro” on many levels. There’s the genuine love between Figaro and Susanna, the illicit love of the Count, and the teenage love of the young page, Cherubino, who’s infatuated with the Countess and every other woman he encounters.
“It’s spring, and the castle is infected with eros,” says Groag, “With everyone having trysts with someone else.”
All this frivolity has a serious side, she says, when the Count’s scheme is exposed and he decides to apologize for his indiscretions. Some stage directors dismiss the Count’s apology and treat it with cynicism, but Groag feels that kills the opera’s intent.
“It says that people can change, and redemption is possible,” she says. “The countess chooses to forgive her husband, and there’s a strength in that.”
In this production, Matthew Burns and Anne-Carolyn Bird, husband and wife in real life, sing the roles of Figaro and Susanna. The cast also features Aaron St. Clair Nicholson as the Count, Katherine Whyte as the Countess and Karin Mushegain as Cherubino.
Smith serves as music director of the Richmond Symphony, which will be performing in this production. Groag is a frequent guest director at Virginia Opera.
Tickets: $25 to $114, available by calling 757-877-2550 or online at http://www.vaopera.org. Students may buy $15 rush tickets available for purchase the day of the performance through the box office.
Each performance will be preceded by a 30-minute discussion by Glenn Winters, the company’s community outreach musical director.
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© David Nicholson, Daily Press, 2013