LE NOZZE DI FIGARO

LE NOZZE DI FIGARO

Aurora Voices at Chelmsford Cathedral

03.06.2016

The seven singers of Aurora Voices brought their Figaro to the Cathedral last week.

Sung in the original Italian, but for much reduced forces {Philip Prior and a succession of piano partners from the dramatic personae] and boiled down to less than an hour. The chamber potted version, as Wolfgang might well have said.

A concert performance, enlivened occasionally by some expressive acting from, inter alia, Beverley Lockyer's lively Susanna, and Joanne Webber's excellent Cherubino. Amongst the musical highlights, the lovely line of Lucy Miller-White's Contessa in the Cavatina, Susanna's aria just before the finale, and Gary Griffiths stealing Figaro's Non piu andrai and sending Cherubino off to war. Completing this vocal septet, Martyn Woodland's Figaro,  Frances Gwynne's Marcellina and Andy Heard's Bartolo.

This lovely concert venue is more accustomed to W A Mozart's motets or the Requiem, so this pocket opera made a refreshing, challenging change. Even if it did send me back to the McVicar staging on DVD …