Sabadell remarries Figaro

Le nozze di Figaro It is one of the most difficult operas in the repertoire. And, despite its apparent lightness, it cannot be taken lightly (excuse the redundancy). Sabadell is well known, because it is a title programmed on several occasions by the Friends of the Opera, now under the auspices of the FOC (Catalan Opera Foundation)But on this occasion, it cannot be said that the marriage between the Mozartian title that opens the Da Ponte trilogy and the Vallesan entity has fully worked.

The reasons may be diverse, starting with a young but uneven cast, in keeping with the style Mozart demands. And while there are outstanding voices in the lead role, the combination has not always been a good fit among the singers debuting in their respective roles. Pau Armengol is a confident Figaro, but his range is limited, especially in the not always polished high notes. However, the baritone's natural talent allowed him to approach the fourth act aria with intelligence and successful expressiveness. The delightful Susanna offered by Rosa Maria Abella can only be criticized for being overly loud in some of the more sinuous passages of the opera. Deh vieni, no tarda and suggest a shift toward a more weighty, perhaps romantic, repertoire. Ferran Albrich's Count was very notable, with an incisive voice but perhaps not quite as authoritarian as Almaviva, despite the innate musicality he brought to the role. And Maria Hinojosa's experience was evident in her portrayal of Almaviva's Countess, whose performances were better in the third act than in the second. Laura Orueta's Cherubino was excellent, and among the supporting cast, Jorge Juan Morata's Basilio (without an aria in the fourth act). The rest was passable.

The problem, I insist, is the lack of stylistic cohesion among the performers cited. The causes may be diverse: either the choice of the cast did not take it into account or the musical direction did not work on it enough. The result of these Nozze It is, therefore, not a very well-matched marriage.

Another cause of this unevenness was the arrangement errors, which led to some lapses in certain ensemble numbers and the loss of a singer. To be fair, these problems were quickly overcome by Daniel Gil de Tejada's baton, in front of a well-performing Symphony Orchestra of the Vallès Orchestra. However, the score's imagination and humorous attention to detail were barely felt.

Miquel Gorriz's staging was bland and filled with the clichés and tropes associated with an opera like this. The occasional humorous touches were scarce, and character work was nowhere to be seen amid Pau Monterde's synthetic and efficient set design, despite David Bofarull's monotonous lighting. Eva Selma's costumes were adequate.