Bass-baritone Tom Hamilton said of Mozart's comic opera The Marriage of Figaro: "It's Fawlty Towers meets Downton Abbey with the greatest music ever written."
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The singer, who alternates in the title role of Opera Australia's touring production, posed in costume outside Parliament House with some of his cast mates on Thursday before the first ACT performance at the Canberra Theatre.
Producer Penny McCabe said Figaro was one of the first operas the company produced in its first season in 1956, marking 200 years since the birth of Mozart, so it was appropriate to be touring the work during Opera Australia's 60th anniversary year; 2016 is also the 260th anniversary of the birth of Mozart.
It also seemed apt that a story full of scheming, confusion, revenge and disguise have Parliament House as a backdrop on the day, although McCabe said, "I'm not sure if there are many disguises in Parliament House".
Translated into English and directed by Michael Gow, The Marriage of Figaro is set over one eventful day. It tells the story of Figaro and Susanna, servants to Count and Countess Almaviva, who are about to be married. The Count is infatuated with Susanna and wants to seduce her before the wedding, but the Countess, Susanna and Figaro have a plan to outwit him.
McCabe said Gow's English translation, following his previous Mozart translations of Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute, helped make the opera more accessible to a wide audience who could get the comedy straight away. She said set and costume designer Robert Kemp had given the production a period look.
The regional tour of the opera, with 12 singers, nine musicians, one conductor and seven crew, would run for seven and a half weeks this year and six weeks next year with another opera, Puccini's Madama Butterfly, scheduled for 2018.
At each location a children's choir was engaged to be the chorus and in Canberra two choirs, each with 24 members, have been rehearsing to alternate in this role, the Woden Valley Youth Choir and the Wild Voices Music Theatre Ensemble. McCabe said for many of the children it was their first experience of opera.
The Marriage of Figaro is on at the Canberra Theatre until Saturday, August 27. Bookings: canberratheatrecentre.com.au or 62752700.
