Search - Christopher Purves, William Dazeley, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart :: Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro

A goodish performance in a goodish English translation

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 02/17/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This seems to be one f the better installments in the Chandos series of classic operas in English. Frankly, it's a retrograde project, given that it took decades to convince the English to hear operas in their original language. But Figaro is full of wit, so an excellent English translation could be fun. Here, it's mostly not. The translation is fairly literal and clunky, showing no attempt to exhibit native English wit.



The performance is a warm, traditional one, which is refreshing. The characters sing with British accents, and that's damaging to the Latin flavor so essential to the household setup and class divisions. All the singers are pleasant without being first rate; they tend to be too polite iwth both the comedy and mock melodrama. In all, this was worth one listen, but I doubt I'l eere return to it."

A wonderful recording by any standard

Tom Lawrence | Cambridge, MA USA | 10/20/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This performance of The Marriage of Figaro has made me a firm believer in the Opera in English mission. I've had the Solti/London recording for years but never was my response as strong and immediate as to this Chandos release conducted by David Parry. The English setting of the text by Jeremy Sams reveals comic gems such as Figaro's comment:



Have you noticed rogues and half-wits

always come in groups of three



You could not ask for a more balanced cast in the leads. Christopher Purves has a rich, rolling baritone and performs the role of Figaro with comic flair. William Dazeley sounds at first a little light for the Count, but he sings with a creamy lyricism that blends nicely. He holds his own in the ensembles and he completely avoids the temptation to bark the role of the jealous womanizer.



Yvonne Kenney sings the Countess with a trilling warble but never to her disadvantage, never out of control, never matronly. It somehow suits the character who, after all, was the teenage Rosina in The Barber of Seville. It also distinguishes her voice from Susanna, sung by Rebecca Evans who is simply gorgeous. Diana Montague's mezzo makes a faultless Cherubino.



Smaller roles are delivered with relish; Graeme Danby brings his Durham roots to the role of Antonio and sings the gardener with a working-class North Country accent. Even the chorus is in on the fun. They cheer hurray when the Count announces he will preside over the wedding; they groan unnnnh when he imposes a delay. There is a true sense of ensemble from top to bottom.



The production quality is wonderful with a perfect balance of instruments to voice. There is just enough audio staging to give a sense of location (the locking of doors in the Countess' chambers) and action (receding voices leaping out windows). The effects seem very organic to the recording process; they don't clutter the soundscape with canned overdubbing.



In all, this is a most enjoyable production and (at half the cost of the Solti set) a bargain at its 3-discs-for-2 price point. I highly recommend this as a companion piece to the Chandos Barber of Seville."

The only English option!

gellio | San Francisco, CA | 10/29/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"While it's nice to have a recording of this great work (my favorite opera) in English, I definitely regret buying it. I have used Chandos to get more fimiliar with other operas (Don Giovanni and Wagner's Ring to name a couple), but I am very familiar with Figaro, and did not need this recording. Unfortunately, I was so excited when I saw it, that I just snapped it up.



Simply put, this recording falls short of the benchmark Italian recordings (of Jacobs [the best recording of this work IMO], Guilini, Gui, Bohm, Davis, Kleiber, and Solti [to name a few]) on every single level. The conducting and orchestral playing are definitely sufficient, but not once principal character (except Marcellina) even comes close to rivalling those of any other sets (mentioned above). It's that simple. Plus, the diction on the part of the Countess and Susanna is very difficult to understand, as are the ensemble pieces, so they mine as well be singing in Italian anyways. It just doesn't work here, like it did for Don Giovanni. 70% of what's being sung cannot be understood by me (a native English speaker).



Yes, they claim it's 3 cds for the price of 2, but that is nearly false advertising, because two arias were cut from the 4th Act, which is such a shame, especially considering how great the Marcellina is. So, you are not getting the complete work, as Mozart intended. Rather, some moron who tries to make a case for cutting these two arias. It's a shame! I would bet they could have put the whole recording on two cds, but they are sort of tricking people into buying it, in some respects. I NEVER would have bought this recording if I had known, ahead of time, those two arias were cut.



All and all, if you have to have more than one Figaro recording, like me, get it, but if you're only looking to purchase one recording of this great work, it would be an absolute crime to make this your one choice. I would recommend Jacobs recording, which just was awarded Album of the Year by Grammophone! It's stunning and surpasses this recording on every single level, as do the other recordings mentioned above. From conducting to singing, this recording just falls short!"