Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro , English National Opera, The Coliseum, London WC2, 12-22 February, 2025, 5☆☆☆☆☆. Review: Clare Colvin.

Photo Credit: Zoe Martin.

Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro , English National Opera, The Coliseum, London WC2, 12-22 February, 2025,

5☆☆☆☆☆. Review: Clare Colvin.

“Committed ENO fires on all cylinders in a No Props Marriage of F|igaro.”

English National Opera’s most recent production of The Marriage of Figaro opened and closed in the space of one night in March 2020, killed by the Covid pandemic that locked down the entire country for months on end. Five years later, director Joe Hill-Gibbins’s production of Mozart’s comedy has returned for its first revival, in its initial shock effect of a blank white stage without any props, save four doors that snap open and shut in quick succession, to reveal glimpses of the characters who are to play out the single crazy wedding day of Count Almaviva’s servants Figaro and Susanna.

Farce is about a lot more than opening and closing doors, of course, especially when you have singers as skilful and talented as ENO’s present cast. In the opera that Mozart’s librettist Da Ponte adapted from the pre-French Revolution comedy by Beaumarchais, there’s a distinct element of latter-day ME-too going on as American baritone Cody Quattlebaum’s Almaviva, making his ENO debut, loosens his Rasta-style man bun while he attempts to re-assert his droit de seigneur to bed the Countess’s maid. Mezzo-soprano Hanna Hip’s sex-addicted pageboy Cherubino meanwhile chases skirts in all directions. Jeremy Sams’s English translation works well with the swift action.

Among the supporting roles, Rebecca Evans is outstanding as Marcellina, Dr Bartolo’s housekeeper, changing from old termagant to loving mum when she discovers Figaro is actually her long lost son Rafael. Nardus Williams’s elegant Countess Almaviva and Mary Bevan’s lively Susanna are beautifully matched as conspirators against the Count, while David Ireland’s bluff Figaro follows the twists and turns of the plot to trounce the Count when the Countess changes clothes with Susanna and sets out to seduce her own husband. Because the stage is totally bare, white-lit, and in full view of the audience, rather than veiled in obscurity during a traditional fourth act of midnight gardens and stone grottoes, you can witness how risky is the Countess’s plan to teach the Count a lesson. She may forgive him in the end, but it’s clear he’s lost the respect of all others.

In repertoire till February 22. Box office: 020 7845 9300 www.eno.org

Conductor: Ainars Rubikis; Director: Joe Hill-Gibbins; Set designer: Johannes Schütz; Costume designer: Astrid Klein; Lighting designer: Matthew Richardson; Associate director & Movement: Jenny Ogilvie; Chorus director: Matthew Quinn; Production pictures: Zoe Martin