Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Libretto: Lorenzo Da Ponte
Director: Benjamin Schilperoort
You don’t need fancy sets and full orchestras when the music and the voices are as good as those in Opera Kipling’s take on Mozart’s musical farce. With just a bed for a set and only Giannis Giannopoulos at the piano, this minimalist Figaro is a lot of fun.
It’s exceedingly well sung, too, with soprano Eleanor Oldfield stealing the show in her role as The Countess, who discovers her husband has plans to reinstate the lord’s right to sleep with a servant girl the night before her marriage. Oldfield’s Dove sono in the third act soars and is even more impressive when you take into account that most of it is sung as she lies on the bed.
Oldfield is just as good when she duets with Rebecca Milford’s Susannah as they plan to fool the Count. Their characters are the real winners in the opera, with Christian Loizou’s Figaro suitably doltish in this production. It’s hard to see what Susannah sees in him as she works with the Countess to bring down the Count.
Baritone Philip Kamanovitch, in his tight jumper and loafers, is excellent as the casually privileged Count, and Robert Tilson is funnily camp and gossipy as Don Curzio. They are joined by Deborah Holborn as Marcellina, Figaro’s unexpected mother, and Patrick Osborne as Figaro’s father. As tradition dictates, but with no attempt to hide it, Cherubino is played by a female singer and mezzo-soprano Alexandra Dinwiddie has a ball in the role.
When the ensemble comes together for pieces such as Esci Omai, garzon mainato, this pared-down Figaro is a delight. With a smattering of choreography, the voices blend perfectly. Sung in Italian, the English surtitles have been updated so that the insults, usually aimed at men, are now rendered into such colloquialisms as “tosser”, “prick” and even “plonker”: names that make the audience titter.
There are times in this 90-minute production when you wish there were more stagecraft to help the cases of mistaken identity and concealments run a little more smoothly. And although the Cockpit (and the next venue at Upstairs at the Gatehouse) have horseshoe seating for the audience, the singers mainly play to the centre. But for fringe opera, Opera Kipling remains ahead of the game.
Runs until 17 August 2025
Camden Fringe runs until 24 August 2025
