After a 12 month postponement, The Marriage of Figaro makes its way onto the stage in 2021. With sold-out performances in Auckland and limited availability in Wellington and Christchurch, we can see that our NZ audience was ready to step out to the theatre once again. Thank you to everyone who has written to us saying how much they enjoyed the production, below are our Auckland reviews.
Lindy Hume’s latest production of the work for NZ Opera is a dazzling piece of theatre with extraordinary voices and inspired acting.
John Daly-Peoples – NZARTS REVIEW
New Zealand Opera’s new production of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro represents the company’s single foray into the “traditional” repertoire for 2021, having been postponed from the 2020 season due to last year’s Covid-19 restrictions. It is a production well worth waiting for, as the refreshing direction and production and wonderful ensemble cast and a production that brought the masterpiece to life to a rare extent.
Ravishingly full of fun, the production was thoroughly engaging in every sense. Not only excellent casting, but also the design, the dramatic shaping, not to mention the enlivened orchestral sounds from Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra led with lightness by conductor Zoe Zeniodi. Lindy Hume director and Zeniodi created clear co-ordination between pit and stage. And with the extraordinary sets and costumes of Tracey Lord Grant and the lighting vision of Matthew Marshall, it was striking teamwork.
Clare Martin – Classical Chromatics
Marriage made in Heaven
Lindy Hume’s staging of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, her seventh engagement with New Zealand Opera, marks a glorious, life-affirming return to mainstage productions.
Once again, the Australian takes a feminist stance on a classic that English writer Virginia Woolf once hailed as the vindication of opera.
This version of the opera – despite being centred around Figaro and his marriage to the beautiful and desired Susanna – is led magnificently by its strong female characters, and this is mirrored on stage in the performances of the cast as well as being supported by the female dominated creative team.
