Mozart out of place in Swinging Sixties

Philip Spendley as Figaro and Milda Smalakyte as Susanna
Warwick Thompson|Metro10 April 2012

Paisley shirts, back-combed hair, frills and ruffles... yup, we're in the 1960s. Quite what that has to do with Mozart's comedy of philandering masters and wily servants is anyone's guess, however.

And after watching a show full of mistimed gags and generalised behaviour, but low on detail, characterisation and conflict, I'm not really sure director John Fulljames knows either.

Fulljames recently scored a great hit with his staging of The Enchanted Pig at the Young Vic but fails to work the same enchantment here.

Which was a great shame, because I suspect that with better help (and tighter conducting from David Angus) quite a few of the young singers in this double-cast show might have turned in much more interesting performances.

Philip Spendley (Figaro) and Milda Smalakyte (Susanna) flounder at first due to a lack of clear direction but when they reach their Act Four arias, the beauty of their voices begins to show through.

Sophie Angebault (Countess) displays an impressively large sound and Nicholas Merryweather (Count), a rich, warm tone, but neither seems quite yet in full control of their raw material; in the case of the latter, his tight vibrato seems to hamper what promises to be a very expressive voice. Tania Mandzy is an amusingly energetic Cherubino.

Tonight and Wed, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Silk Street EC2, 7pm, £22.50, £15 concs (returns only).

Tel: 020 7638 8891. Tube: Barbican/Moorgate

Le Nozze Di Figaro
Guildhall School Of Music & Drama
Silk Street, Barbican, EC2Y 8DT

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