Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro 4K Blu-ray Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, February 27, 2017

Virtually every new recording of Mozart's great opera, Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), is eagerly anticipated. The opera is, after all, an indisputable masterpiece, and frequently described as the most perfect opera ever written.

Salzburg is one of the coolest towns in Europe, one that a lot of film lovers like to visit courtesy of its connection to The Sound of Music, one of the most iconic and legendary musical films of all time. Those with a love of music a bit older than Richard Rodgers' have another reason to love Salzburg, though, for it was of course home to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and there is still an impossibly tiny set of rooms Mozart lived in that you can tour. Also in this incredibly scenic village is the Haus für Mozart , a similarly small concert venue (with a rather fascinating past—interested parties are encouraged to Google it) which played host to this production of Le Nozze di Figaro as part of 2015's Salzburg Festival. Now the concert video has been released as what is to my knowledge the first 4K UHD presentation of a live opera. Le Nozze di Figaro regularly ranks at or near the top of all time favorite operas, as can probably be seen by the rather large number of 'standard' 1080 Blu-ray releases it's received, which include Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro, Mozart: Le Nozze Di Figaro, Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro, Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro, Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro, Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro, Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro, Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro, and the 1080 Blu-ray release of this very version.

It's maybe just a little odd that one of the crown jewels of buffa could be constructed out much the same plot conceit that animates the pretty turgid historical drama The War Lord, but the ancient practice of droit du seigneur is at the core of this opera's plot dynamics, whereby Susanna (Martina Jankova) may need to submit (sexually) to Count Almaviva (Luca Pisaroni) on the night of her planned wedding to Figaro (Adam Plachetka). Rounding out the romantic entanglements in various ways are the Count's unhappy wife, Countess Rosina Almaviva (Anett Fritsch) and visitors Marcellina (Ann Murray) and Dr. Bartolo (Carlos Chausson). Adding to the farcical ambience are Cherubino (Margarita Gritskova) and a few other tangential supporting characters.
Disguises, mixed up identities, secret identities and even one en travesti role (Cherubino) add to the chaos that slowly but surely accrues in this effervescent and ebulliently melodic piece, one which has offered a number of 'standards' to the operatic repertoire, including of course its energetic Overture, which even non-aficionados of Classical fare are apt to recognize. This handsome production features a rather impressive two level set denoting the Manor house and splits the 'door slamming' proclivities of the plot between the levels quite effectively. Director Sven-Eric Bechtolf has reset the action to the aftermath of World War I, something that neither adds to nor detracts from the opera's fizziness. While the cast is game, I'm going to engage in a bit of agism by suggesting that Jankova is perhaps just a trifle long in tooth to be essaying Susanna, at least against Plachetka's Figaro. The singing is uniformly excellent if inadequately mic'd (see the audio section, below), and the Vienna Philharmonic sounds fantastic under the baton of the perhaps slightly pretentious at times Dan Ettinger (he knows when he's on camera, folks), who conducts from the keyboard and provides some good continuo.
Note: Those who don't consider themselves opera experts may be interested to look into another opera,

Le Nozze Di Figaro Cast

The Barber of Seville (there are various version, but Rossini's is the best known and most popular and contains a ton of music even casual listeners will recognize). The source material for both The Barber of Seville

Le Nozze Di Figaro Summary

and The Marriage of Figaro present the same characters at different times in their lives and watching both of these (start with Barber) makes for a kind of interesting double feature where characters change and grow.

Sample	Title/Composer	Performer	Time
Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), opera, K. 492
1	03:58
2	02:22
3	00:44
4	02:07
5	02:26
6	02:05
7	00:54
8	02:43
9	00:34
10	01:52
11	01:38
12	03:18
13	03:37
14	04:32
15	00:56
16	01:05
17	01:23
18	00:53
19	01:13
20	03:38
21	01:13
22	02:58
23	03:06
24	02:43
25	00:57
26	02:43
27	03:34
28	02:42
29	01:12
30	00:53
31	01:54
32	06:59
33	03:15
34	02:47

Sample	Title/Composer	Performer	Time
Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), opera, K. 492
1	02:57
2	04:04
3	02:36
4	02:29
5	00:42
6	01:29
7	03:13
8	01:54
9	04:35
10	01:31
11	02:04
12	05:16
13	01:10
14	03:00
15	00:19
16	01:10
17	02:17
18	01:57
19	04:23
20	01:48
21	02:49
22	01:51
23	02:30
24	00:50
25	01:40
26	03:55
27	00:31
28	05:01
29	04:56
30	01:25
31	03:44

blue highlight denotes track pick