Review Roundup: Los Angeles Opera's MARRIAGE OF FIGARO

The Los Angeles Opera opened THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO. From the breathless opening notes of the overture to the touching final curtain, Mozart's comic masterpiece under the baton of James Conlon brilliantly bucks the conventions of his time to deliver an ageless message of love and forgiveness.

Let's see what the critics had to say:

RICHARD S. GINELL of the LA Times: Despite whisking the time frame ahead a couple of centuries, this remains pretty much a by-the-book "Figaro" that Mozart and librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte would have recognized as Judge continues to strike a good balance between knockabout comedy and underlying pathos. The physical attraction between Cherubino and the Countess was quite specifically spelled out, which would have left no doubt about what to expect in "The Guilty Mother." The onstage fireworks after the close of the opera were startlingly noisier than I recall from previous performances - of course, guaranteeing a big hand from the audience.

Jim Farber, LA Daily News: And while there are aspects of the production - directed by Ian Judge, designed by Tim Goodchild, with costumes by Deirdre Clancy - that take the word "anachronistic" to indecipherable heights, the musical performance was so brilliant it made the production's odd collision of time periods essentially unimportant.

Falling James, LA Weekly: L.A. Opera opened its final part of the trilogy, composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte's 1786 Italian-language comedy The Marriage of Figaro, on Saturday night at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and it was the most fully engaging production of the trio. The audience certainly seemed to think so, giving the performance the longest standing ovation of the season.

Opera Warhorses: In his Los Angeles Opera (and American) debuts, Italian bass-baritone RobertoTagliavini was Figaro. Tagliavini, who had sung recently in Vienna with the Los Angeles Opera's general director, Placido Domingo (with the company's music director James Conlon conducting) in Verdi's "I Due Foscari". A specialist in Mozart and bel canto bass-bairtone roles, Tagliavini brought a lively vitality and lustrous basso sound to the title role.

Pauline Adamek, Arts Beat LA:

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