by Mike Telin
Last night, Friday, April 28 at Masonic Auditorium, Cleveland Opera Theater scored a win with its latest mainstage production, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. Directed by Scott Skiba, the exceptionally strong cast performed with solid vocal prowess and comedic flair, making for an enjoyable musical as well as theatrical experience.
The plot is filled with mistaken identity, surprise paternity, and intrigue, as the servants Figaro and Susanna triumph through marriage while comically thwarting the attempts of the philandering Count Almaviva to seduce Susanna.
Making his company debut, baritone Christopher Holmes was terrific as the somewhat dense, but good-natured Figaro. Sopranos Marian Vogel as Susanna and Rachel Copeland as Countess Rosina were brilliant as they wittingly outsmarted the men, while the sonorous baritone Brian Keith Johnson owned the role of the swaggering Count. And mezzo-soprano Amanda Fink was inspired in the trouser role of the hormone-raged Cherubino.
Conductor Domenico Boyagian kept the action moving, allowing the genius of Mozart to take center stage. The Cleveland Opera Theater Orchestra was lithe and responsive.
The final performance will be on Sunday, April 30 at 3:00 pm. Read a full review on Tuesday.
Published on ClevelandClassical.com April 29, 2017.
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