The Marriage of Figaro – Leeds Grand Theatre

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Libretto: Lorenzo da Ponte

Director: Louisa Muller

Opera North’s reimagining of the evergreen opera that is The Marriage of Figaro is a delight from start to finish and is a resounding success. Updated for modern audiences, it is set in a country house in contemporary England that will appeal to fans of polished, grand costume dramas like Downton Abbey or Bridgerton. But the Almaviva Estate as portrayed here is a more mundane affair, the deliberate vision of director Louisa Muller and set designer Madeleine Boyd to reflect a more modern approach to the relationships between master and servants. The tone is set right from the beginning with the famous fast-paced Overture encapsulating all the hustle and bustle of a large household busy with wedding day preparations. We also meet the staff who run the place, tourists, tour guides, prospective employees and guests at Figaro and Susanna’s wedding.  The obligatory ballroom scene that is customary in costume dramas with its formulaic, elegant dancing a la Jane Austen is here transposed to a wedding day disco complete with “dad dancing”.

The action in four Acts is set to take place during the course of just one day -Figaro and Susanna’s wedding day – and what a day it is, full of plots and counter plots, disguises and shenanigans, pathos and farce, love, wit, comedy, thwarted ambition and disappointment. The stage includes all the various locations to be found in a grand house: the boot room, bathroom, split-stage billiard room/nursery to be, Great Hall, bedrooms, ever present grand staircase in the background. And the music is, of course, catchy and memorable and sublime throughout, packed back-to-back with hit tunes, including some of the most famous in all of opera. These include Figaro’s Non piu andrai, Cherubino’s serenade voi che sapete (all about the agony and ecstasy of being young and in live) and the haunting duet between Susanna and the Countess made famous in the scene from The Shawshank Redemption which is likely to be responsible for introducing a whole new raft of admirers to Mozart’s music (no bad thing in itself). 

The performers are universally excellent with voices suited to such a prestigious company as Opera North. Liam James Karai (Figaro) and Hera Hyesang Park (Susanna) are both making their debut with Opera North and inhabit their roles with aplomb and confidence and a real stage chemistry. James Newby and Gabriella Reyes (also making her Opera North debut) as the Count and Countess Almaviva portray a couple who have lost their way together, he resorting to philandering and blind to his wife’s charms and lusting after Susanna and she wistful and yearning for things to be as they once were. The climax in Act Four when the Count finally seems to realise the consequences of his actions and asks for his wife’s forgiveness is a heartfelt moment indeed.  

Perhaps the most complex and difficult role to pull off successfully is that of Cherubino, the Countess’s adolescent godson whose hormones are all over the place and who adores all women, especially the Countess! Here he is played by Hongni Wu (yet another Opera North debut) and brings the character convincingly alive with all his adolescent angst, infatuations and schemes. Add to that Wu’s superb singing voice and you have a potent mix. All the other characters play their parts convincingly and the whole Company benefits from the marvellous playing of a live full Opera North orchestra.

This production will attract new fans of the genre whilst at the same time appeal to the aficionado wanting to explore what is a staple of the opera repertoire in a fresh and vibrant way.

Runs until 20th February 2026, before touring