San Jose Opera's MARRIAGE OF FIGARO

San Jose Opera presents……..
THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO

I love the productions Irene Dalis presents at Opera San Jose. I love them for many more reasons than the quality of her productions, even though they improve at every performance. Dalis offers countless young singers the opportunity to experience performing in full scale, well directed, and highly polished opera before they have actually arrived at the professional level. She trains them, she grooms them and she nurtures them, coaxing the best from their voices and their acting abilities. Because of her tutelage and the care she takes with each one of her protégées, each performance is truly lovely, well acted and beautifully sung. THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO is no exception. It is especially difficult to present an opera so familiar to its audience that every misdirection, every sour note will be instantly detected. Opera San Jose does not disappoint us.

In the production I saw, the scene stealers were Rebecca Schuessler as the countess, Jennie Litster as Susanna and Tori Grayum as Cherubino. The entire cast worked well together but these three shone. The performance was well paced and charming. After all, how could Mozart NOT be delightful?

One of the joys of going to this company’s productions is to watch the singers grow into their roles. Rebecca Schuessler was a stellar Manon, far surpassing the very exceptional talents of the others in her production. In THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, she outdid herself once more. When she sings of lost love and happiness in the exquisite aria Dove sono i bei momenti – "Where are they, the beautiful moments" she will tear your heart out. She is telling us of the way so many marriages grow stale and how little we can control the process. You almost forget she is singing, so real are the sentiments she expresses, so true for anyone who has been in love. Jennie Litster is the irrepressible, clever Susanna to a musical T and I do not believe I have ever seen a more adorable Cherubino (Tori Graynum) on any stage. I have been treated to this opera in San Francisco and in Edinburgh countless times and these three singers were as touching and as thrilling as the most professional of them.

THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO was written 186 years ago by Mozart when he was thirty years old. The theme of infidelity and the value of marrying for love still ring true today.
This opera is worth seeing both for the exquisite music and the beautiful voices that sing it. The direction is good and the enthusiasm of the cast actually palpable. The opera is over three hours long, but it will seem like only moments for the rising of the curtain in Act I until it descends with everyone singing happily every after in Act IV .

IF YOU GO:
THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO continues until February 21, 2010
Tickets and information: 408 437 4450
www.operasj.org

The next production: Puccini’s La Rodine
April 24-May 9, 2010