Quick reviews of recent events
Submit your own review or commentary to Events@CoolCleveland.com

The Marriage of Figaro: Cleveland Orchestra @ Severance Hall 3/25 Festivity and magic ruled both onstage and off (a clever magician plied his trade in the lobby) when the Cleveland Orchestra, under the direction of Franz Welser-Most, brought opera back to the Severance Hall stage for the first time since the 1960s. The Marriage of Figaro, graced by superb orchestral support and some sublime singing, most notably that of Malin Hartelius as the divinely honey-voiced Countess Almaviva, provided four hours (four hours! was nothing cut?) of delicious, bittersweet Mozartian comedy.

Baritone Michael Volle as the world-weary lech of a Count who dabbled in magic tricks (magic case and all) and soprano Martina Jankova as Susanna offered sonorous delights to the proceedings, but mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard shone most brightly and enchantingly as the boy/man/woman Cherubino. Director Sven-Eric Bechtolf and set designers Rolf and Marianne Glittenberg brought over much of the sexy Euro-trash Zurich production (minus a huge drape that dominated the Zurich set).

Negative note: The staging brought out just how large the Severance Hall stage really is and it was disconcerting to imagine tidy eighteenth-century rooms suddenly seeming almost as large as "the Q." It will be interesting indeed to see the next two operas scheduled in the Mozart opera cycle (Cosi fan tutte and Don Giovanni). If you missed the opera don’t mourn. An EMI Classics DVD of the Zurich production is available with most of the Cleveland cast (minus Leonard) from The Cleveland Orchestra.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Laura Kennelly lkennellyATgmail.com
(:divend:)