http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/24/arts/music/metropolitan-opera-opens-with-le-nozze-di-figaro.html 2014-09-23 12:37:25 Metropolitan Opera Opens With ‘Le Nozze di Figaro’ The production by the British director Richard Eyre, which updates the story to Spain in the 1930s, has much to recommend it. === That the But, as opera-lovers know, a difficult The idea, it seems, is to suggest that the count’s grand house on the outskirts of Seville, where the action takes place, is a maze of interlocked rooms, doors and corridors, making it easy for everyone in the household, aristocrats and servants alike, to know what everyone else is up to. But the set looks chilly and imposing, and often dwarfs the characters. Still, Mr. Eyre has clear ideas about who these people are and draws subtle, vivid and kinetic performances from a cast of willing singers. Mr. Howell also designed the 1930s-era costumes, and those are wonderful: sleek gowns and smart suits for the upper class; proper, playful uniforms for the staff. This is hardly a daring production. Still, sexuality courses through “Figaro” and without letting things become crude, Mr. Eyre brings it out, starting with the silent scenario he invents for the overture. As the music begins, we see on the dimly lighted stage a frenzied young woman naked from the waist up. She rushes by and pulls a servant’s dress over her head. In her wake comes the preening count, played by the tall, handsome baritone The bass Mr. Mattei made his 2002 Met debut as Count Almaviva in the In a high-pressured Met debut, the young American soprano The plush, animated mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard is a beguiling Cherubino, the count’s page, though in this production the character comes across as just an adolescent boy trying to look mature in a light three-piece suit in order to impress the older countess, whom he pines for. That this Cherubino is 100 percent hormones was palpable in Ms. Leonard’s singing of the breathless aria “Non so più,” in which the young man tells of being so swept up with longing for every woman he sees that he goes through each day trembling with elation and utter confusion. This was one of many moments in the opera where Mr. Levine’s sure input was apparent. The tempo was reined in just enough so that the insistent three-note rhythmic riff that runs through the aria had clarity and point without any rigidity, whether in Ms. Leonard’s singing or the orchestra. Even in this ultimate expression of youthful sensuality there was breadth and refinement, qualities Mr. Levine drew from the entire score. In the scene in Act II when, as part of the plot to expose the count, Susanna and the countess dress Cherubino as a girl, Ms. Leonard played it so that the young man, while awkward in high heels, seems to enjoy the experience. He hops on a bed with the giggling countess and Susanna, looking ready for a little gal-pal time. Though the bass-baritone John Del Carlo had some vocally patchy moments as the pompous Doctor Bartolo, he brought engaging comic bluster to the character. Marcellina, the housekeeper, is typically presented as an imperious, snippy older woman absurdly besotted with Figaro. The veteran mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer makes a more youthful-seeming and sassy Marcellina, which enhanced her interchanges with Figaro, who in the opera’s biggest plot twist turns out to be her lost son. (Bartolo is his father.) The young soprano Ying Fang is the sweet-voiced Barbarina, an age-appropriate match for Cherubino, whom she appears to win over by the end. Over all, this “Figaro,” though solid work from an acclaimed director, seems not that much of an improvement on Mr. Miller’s staging, which, while not his most inspired production, was colorful, insightful and intimate. Still, there are intriguing touches and moments I will take away. For one, the end of Act III, when Susanna marries Figaro and Doctor Bartolo marries Marcellina, and everyone in the household assembles at a long dinner table for an official photograph of the double wedding. Amid the joy you detect the tension as suspicions linger and plots are advanced. Finally, I was surprised at how seldom I thought about the health problems Mr. Levine has been grappling with in recent years. This long work in four acts was performed with just one intermission. Mr. Levine seemed energized and in command throughout and brought shape, flow and naturalness to this astounding score. This was an encouraging start to his expanded workload this season.