BWW Reviews: ROYAL OPERA HOUSE - LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, Cineworld Wandsworth, October 5 2015

There were two contradictory moments during the broadcast of the Royal Opera House's Le Nozze Di Figaro which illustrated the limitations - or opportunities - of the format. In the pre-show warm-up interviews, conductor Ivor Bolton was explaining how Mozart's music tells the story of the madcap wedding day as much as Lorenzo Da Ponte's pacey libretto, when he said - "...of course, it helps if you know a little theory, but you don't need to...". Hmm... I thought: have I paid my near £20 to be shut out of the real fun by my lack of knowledge? But later, a very slick advert told us that the ROH's series of cinema presentations (this one went to 895 screens provoking tweets from Banbury to Bangkok) was part of opera's inclusive community spirit where one needs neither pots of cash nor posh togs to embrace an oft-misunderstood art form. The truth, naturally, lies somewhere between.

This production (and its marvellous cinema presentation, with a somewhat gaunt Simon Callow our genial host) is wonderfully accessible. It looks fantastic, with the cameras getting closer to the action than anyone in the house, revealing just how fully realised is the 18th century chateau, with its tall windows, its polished wooden floors and its squadrons of servants. The costumes too are shown off to magnificent effect, the spectacle of grand (well, grandiose) opera losing little in transmission.

If that's on the accessible side of the ledger, on the other, one finds the demands productions like this make on one's stamina. Maintaining concentration on a twisting, turning plot (great fun though it is) driven largely by subtitles delivered in a 100 minutes first half and 90 minutes second, albeit with a generous long interval to stretch the legs, blink the eyes and eat the er... popcorn. That agenda is hardly an easy ask watching live, but it's much tougher in the comfortable seats of a 21st century cinema, without the peer pressure of a capacity house pulling in the same direction. Sleep well the night before!

David McVicar's production stars Uruguayan Erwin Schrott, who really gets his teeth into the role, particularly when Figaro squares up to The Count (Stephane Degout, a perpetually outfoxed aristocrat), the standoff foreshadowing the events of 1789, just three years in the future when this opera was first performed.

Schrott may have charisma to burn, but it's the women who really steal the show. Understudy Sophie Bevan seemed understandably a little nervous at first, but grew into the role of Susanna, Figaro's bride and the object of the Count's lust, delivering a superb second half. Ellie Dehn's Countess is initially girlishly flirtatious, but then manipulates the Count perfectly (with Figaro pulling a few strings of course) and Dehn's singing is supercharged throughout. Stealing the show in the trouser role of Cherubino is Kate Lindsey, whose Act Two aria, Voi che sapete che cosa è amor, is the high point of the evening for me, but Lindsey is eminently watchable throughout, even if she couldn't sing at all - and boy, can she sing!

It's wonderful that the cinema presentations of productions beamed from the Royal Opera House, The New York Met and The National Theatre bring these wondrous works to us rather than us travelling and paying for a seat - if you can get one (though, of course, nothing beats live). I see these presentations at Cineworld Wandsworth, but many larger cinemas across the country and beyond screen them. Theatregoers should give them a chance - I think they would be surprised.

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