Eugene Walden and Kelly Britt

HILARIOUS "MARRIAGE OF FIGARO" AT CINNABAR

The Cinnabar Theater mounted a delightful, madcap, rambunctious, completely charming, extremely funny, very classy production of Mozartʼs opera "The Marriage of Figaro" from May 30 to June 15. With the feel of a 1920s Upstairs/Downstairs farce, it was sung in English and easily understood.

Though Beaumarchais' original play had a strong political undercurrent with a vein of cynical and sometimes bitter humor, the transformations into high comedy with Da Ponte's libretto and Mozart's enchanting music leave the politics of the 18th century far behind. The cast, all excellent operatic singers, had the physical humor, the facial expressions, the comedic timing all pitch perfect. A small chamber orchestra of about a dozen musicians did a terrific job.

The music, some of Mozartʼs most memorable, revealed all the machinations, tribulations and outright farce unfolding on the stage. At one point, one of the singers tossed something to the conductor. The sets of the four acts were clever, the actors momentarily becoming stagehands.

A terrific cast included Kelly Britt as Susanna, Eugene Walden as Figaro, Christian Smith-Kotlarek as a perfect Count Almaviva, lovely Bharati Soman as Countess Rosina, and a remarkably funny and expressive Cary Ann Kosko as Cherubino. The rest of the cast all deserve mention, as do the musicians.

A polished production, beautiful singing, hysterically funny, this "Marriage of Figaro" was a winner.