Genre:
Opera
Release Date:
May 2013
Recorded:
2012
Number of Discs:
2
Aspect Ratio:
16:9 Anamorphic
Display:
NTSC
Catalog Number:
OA1102D
Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro (Glyndebourne)
Sally Matthews (Countess Almaviva); Vito Priante (Figaro); Audun Iversen (Count Almaviva); Lydia Teuscher (Susanna); Isabel Leonard (Cherubino); Ann Murray (Marcelllina);
Perhaps no opera is closely and affectionately associated with a single house as Le nozze di Figaro is with Glyndebourne. Effortlessly witty yet shot through with pain and sadness, this deeply ambivalent life in the day of masters and servants as they scheme and outwit one another was Glyndebourne's opening production in 1934. Michael Grandage's staging is the seventh, set in a louche Sixties ambience. Marshalled by the ideal pacing of Robin Ticciati, a youthful cast of principals has no weak link and looks gorgeous (The Sunday Times) in a production that continues Glyndebourne's rewarding history of engagement with Mozart's and da Ponte's day of madness.
Reviews
"... this is a Figaro of rare grace, naturalness and charm. Robin Ticciatis conducting is seamlessly complementary. The cast amounts to a classic Glyndebourne ensemble. Sally Matthews sings the Countesss arias with perfect poise, while Lydia Teuscher makes a delightfully practical Susanna. Audun Iversen and Vito Priante are well-matched as the Count and Figaro, while Isabel Leonard is an enchanting disco-bunny of a Cherubino. The rest of the cast is terrific, and the whole thing moves like lightning. Pure joy." (The Daily Telegraph)
".... Glyndebourne does Figaro so well its a smasher, with a wonderful young cast that is typical of Glyndebourne at its best.The production grows in strength as the evening proceeds, with the staging of the almost incomprehensible last act comedy of mistaken identities in the garden the most effective I can recall.The cast is strong throughout, and there is so much to thrill to. Lydia Teuscher, Vito Priante and Audun Iversen as Susanna, Figaro and the Count, are all splendid vocally and play their wonderful games with rare gusto.As the Countess, Sally Matthews is just perfection, physically and vocally. Her 'Porgi amor' is breathtakingly beautiful and why her philandering husband would want to stray is beyond me. She is a Countess who quite falls for Isabel Leonards spunky Cherubino this as fine a portrayal as I can recall since Teresa Berganza at Covent Garden 49 years ago. Leonard is making her Glyndebourne debut (as is Iversen) and this house has shown once more as so often in the past how deft it tends to be at finding the brightest and best of the stars of the future." (Gramophone)
Extra features
Cast Gallery; Le Nozze di Figaro - The Greatest Opera Ever Written?; Le Nozze di Figaro - From Page to Stage