New York Classical Review

Monday night, the Metropolitan Opera brought back its ten-year-old production of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. This revival mixes the familiarity of Richard Eyre’s staging, with both familiar and relatively new faces. The Count and Countess Almaviva are baritone Joshua Hopkins and soprano Federica Lombardi, both well-known on the Met stage. Bass-baritone Maurizio Muraro has been playing Dr. Bartolo for years, and mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Bishop (Marcellina) is an experienced Met performer.

The other principals aren’t new to the Met, but are stepping up into leading roles. Bass-baritone Michael Sumuel is Figaro, soprano Olga Kulchynska is Susanna, and mezzo-soprano Sun-Ly Pierce is Cherubino. The one Met debut is a notable one: Joanna Mallwitz in the pit. With this mix, the overall musical performance wasn’t always at the highest level, even though the singing was outstanding all around.

In the lead roles, Sumuel and Kulchynska were impressive and, beyond their singing, had great chemistry together and with the other members of the cast—not just as singers, but as performers. Sumuel was a pleasure to hear from his opening “Cinque, dieci, venti” his voice was full and crisp in timbre and articulation, with an even tone, quick vibrato, and lovely crooning quality in his upper register. He made it all sound easy.

Kulchynska balanced this with a sound that was aptly light but mature enough to be something more than girlish. This was a subtle and crucial thing, a Susanna whose scheming and machinations easily held their own with the charisma that Mozart gave Figaro. There was warm humor in her singing and also emotional depth, “Giunse alfin il momento” had fine musical and dramatic balance.

Though not the lead character, Countess Almaviva is often the star of the show, and such was they case  with Lombardi, who was terrific. The sheer sound of her voice was marvelous, a gorgeous tone and precise intonation and articulation. Her phrasing in the Countess’s great arias (“Porgi amor” and “Dove sono”) was elegant and smart, fully opening the meaning without sentimentality. She had great charisma and stature on stage, not least for the way her voice floated above everything else, with colorful, plummy tones that sounded aristocratic.

Hopkins, who is such a good Papageno, was unsurprisingly an excellent Count. The vitality and exactitude of his singing was a complement to Lombardi—in no way a buffoon, his Count was just as quick and scheming as Figaro, with the one weakness that his carnal motivations made him easy to trap.

Vocally, Pierce was a solid Cherubino. “Voi che sapete” was charming, and if Pierce wasn’t quite as convincing as Isabel Leonard as a young man, when Cherubino is in drag she was fully convincing. One of the quirks of Figaro is that a minor character, Barbarina, gets one of the best arias, “L’ho perduta,” and soprano Mei Gui Zhang was stellar.

Muraro and Bishop had the ease and confidence of the veterans they are, producing much of the comedy. Tenor Brenton Ryan was an insinuating Don Basilio, and bass-baritone Paul Corona was fantastic as Antonio, with a commanding voice and perfect dramatic manner.

Mallwitz’s conducting didn’t completely match the hype for her Met debut. The overture was crisp and lively, and there was strong energy throughout. But there were repeated odd moments that focused on arbitrary details in the score, a forest-for-the-tress indulgence that was always fleeting but repeated enough times to become disruptive. While she was often a sensitive accompanist in the arias, there were stretches where she ignored where the singers were and was often severely behind their beat through the first two acts.

Ensembles were often a problem. The fussiness over details—which translated into her baton technique—turned the shifting configurations of quartet, quintet, and septet into a mess at the end of Act I, with singes rand orchestra going off in different directions. The Act III ensemble, when Marcellina realizes Figaro, who she was trying to blackmail into marriage, is her son (and Bartolo his father) went from buoyant to lethargic, like a sprinter running into quicksand.

As the continuo ensemble, fortepianist Howard Watkins and cellist Kari Jan Docter were terrific, keeping things moving with playing that was satisfying and simple.

The one interesting idea in Eyre’s staging is to set it in pre-Civil War Spain, but he never does anything with the class implications. The sets are both gaudy and bland, a monochromatic castle of grillwork and filigree. In contrast to the inventive, exhilarating productions the Met now has for Così fan tutte and Die Zauberflöte, this production and the dour Don Giovanni come off as minor league. But the music is still Mozart, and this cast sings the hell out of it.

Le Nozze di Figaro continues through May 17, with cast changes for the May performances. metopera.org