As an antidote to turning back clocks and dark days, Mozart is always a right choice, in this instance especially: the heat of Seville, conveyed by light shimmering on an Islamic-Christian palace, rich with golds and ambers, makes Glyndebourne’s staging of The Marriage of Figaro a fabulous visual feast (thanks to Christopher Oram’s designs and Paule Constable’s lighting). Revived in the summer, now with a mostly new cast, Michael Grandage’s 2012 production is one of two main stagings for this autumn’s Glyndebourne Tour (the other is La Bohème), on the road between now and the end of November.
Quite apart from reaching a wider audience, a key strength of the tour is a willingness to nurture young talent. The conductor of Figaro, Stephanie Childress, is 23 years old. As a violinist she attracted attention in BBC Young Musician in 2016 and 2019. Now her podium career has taken precedence. Her focus and poise resulted in a performance of lithe vitality, detailed and assured. With the constant stop-start dialogue, which has to feel as fluent and realistic as daily conversation, timing is all. The use of historically informed performance elements – natural trumpets, skilfully embellished continuo playing on fortepiano and cello – resulted in an ideal balance between stage and pit. It bowled along freely and wittily.
