The Atlanta Opera breathes frivolity and joy into a timeless Mozart classic

Milos Forman’s 1984 Mozart biopic Amadeus has a famous scene in which the composer stands before Emperor Joseph II defending his choice to set Beaumarchais’ The Marriage of Figaro to music despite the latter’s reservations around vulgarity and political unrest. Irritated and flustered, Mozart blurts out, “Come on now, be honest! Which one of you wouldn’t rather listen to his hairdresser than Hercules? Or Horatius or Orpheus … people so lofty they sound as if they shit marble!”

The declaration may have been made up, but it does capture the essence of Mozart’s playful disdain for the pompous absurdities of the aristocracy that surrounded him and his motivations for realizing Figaro as an opera. That spirit was alive and well in the Atlanta Opera’s production on March 14, even as opening night threatened to become a comedy of errors all its own.

Just after the iconic overture, the house lights were raised, and an unseen announcer informed the near-capacity crowd that a technical issue had stalled the proceedings momentarily. Minutes later, Atlanta Opera Artistic Director Tomer Zvulun emerged to explain that soprano Sydney Mancasola (Suzanne) had fallen and damaged her chin. Appropriately theatrical gasps went up from the audience, and Zvulun explained that Mancasola was receiving first aid and determined to soldier on.

The proceedings were soon back underway, and Mancasola took the stage to thunderous applause that she acknowledged with only the slightest hint of a nod and coy smile to the throng of supportive onlookers. From there on, she was back in character, belting out soaring high notes even as a horrific bruise spread across her jawline throughout the night.

“For the first few minutes, we were just assessing the situation,” said Mancasola of the delay when I spoke to her backstage after the show. “Then we realized I was bleeding, so we needed to get it bandaged up before we kept going.” She was in good spirits with an elegant, poised presence and winsome aura despite the injury. 

The accident was, in its own unexpected way, a sort of meta-realization of the opera’s central themes. The Marriage of Figaro is, above all, a tale meant to humanize and equalize the stratified aristocracies of Europe and the servants beneath them. The production capitalized on that throughout, such as the moment when a distraught Figaro raises the houselights so that the men in the audience can see the supposedly duplicitous and calculating women who surround them. That moment, like so many throughout the night, brought uproarious laughter. 

The vocal performances were as top-notch as one would expect, but comedy was the order of the evening, and the audience was in stitches throughout. That laugh lines predicated on the social norms of two-and-a-half centuries ago could elicit such raucous laughter speaks to the sheer timelessness of the source material — and the great fun the Atlanta Opera players were having in delivering it.

Mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb’s portrayal of foppish horndog Cherubino proved to be an audience favorite with stellar comic timing and wild buffoonery throughout. Later on, I watched videos of her performances in the standard opera diva persona — exquisite gowns and glittering jewelry underscoring a majestic voice — and was amazed that this was the same person. Truly, “range” applies as much to Chaieb’s acting as to her vocal capacity. 

The titular Figaro was handled by Atlanta Opera alumnus Brandon Cedel, who had previously taken the starring role in the company’s performance of another Mozart classic, Don Giovanni. Back then, I’d taken issue with the AO’s decision to stage the opera in a gritty, film noir setting that undermined the satirical bent with aggressive modernism. As such, I was pleased to see that this mounting of Figaro had stayed true to the intended 17th-century time and setting.

Like its production of Candide before it, the Atlanta Opera proved once again that it knows how to have a good time and how to breathe frivolity and joy into the powdered wigs and ruffled coats of the time period from which opera springs. In an age like ours, where political dealings and global intrigue seem to hang perpetually low in the air all around us, it’s a welcome respite from the modern world to see the upper crust of yesteryear so mercilessly skewered.

The Marriage of Figaro will continue its run through March 22. The Atlanta Opera will return April 25 with Puccini’s Turandot, a performance that comes exactly 100 years after the opera’s original premiere. 

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Jordan Owen began writing about music professionally at the age of 16 in Oxford, Mississippi. A 2006 graduate of the Berklee College of Music, he is a professional guitarist, bandleader and composer. He is currently the lead guitarist for the jazz group Other Strangers, the power metal band Axis of Empires and the melodic death/thrash metal band Century Spawn.