A ‘Marriage’ of wits

Alex Coolman

o7 Droit du seigneur.

f7 It’s the sonorous term for the scandalous practice at the heart of

Mozart’s opera “The Marriage of Figaro.”

The phrase -- literally translated, it means “right of the lord” --

refers to the feudal custom of a lord’s sleeping with the bride of a

vassal before turning her over to her husband. It’s the attempt of a

particularly lecherous nobleman to claim this libidinous privilege that

sets the stage for the comic mayhem of Mozart’s work, now on stage at the

Orange County Performing Arts Center.

“Figaro” is being performed at by Opera Pacific through Sunday in a

production as technically gorgeous as it is hilarious and moving.

Richard Bernstein, in the role of Figaro, the husband who attempts to

defend his wife’s honor, gives a performance charged with madcap energy.

The towering John Hancock, who sings the part of amorous Count Almaviva,

has his own kind of slightly foolish grandeur, acting imperious one

moment and repentant the next.

At the heart of the action is the woman whose charms are the object of

both men’s desire, Susanna. Christine Brandes, who sings the role, imbues

her character with a grace and intelligence that brings the work’s witty

libretto vividly to life.

“She’s actually sort of the central figure to the show even though it’s

called ‘The Marriage of Figaro,’ ” Brandes said. “She’s the one who

actually has very clearly defined relationships with everyone.”

“The Marriage of Figaro” draws frequently -- almost relentlessly, in fact

-- on the humorous potential of misidentification and purposeful

deception. When Susanna isn’t trying to conceal the presence of the young

heartthrob Cherubino by dressing him up as a woman, she’s pretending to

be the Countess Almaviva or in some other way conspiring to restore grace

and good humor to moments in which the straight truth is painfully

awkward.

Countess Almaviva does a little work in disguise herself, and absolutely

all of the major characters at some point end up hiding behind chairs or

pillars to facilitate that other staple of stage comedy: the overheard

conversation.

Although Figaro, with his happy talent for shameless improvisation in

sticky situations, is perhaps the guiding personality of the opera, it is

Susanna who generally seems to have the clearest understanding of what’s

really going on.

Early in the first act, Figaro wonders why his wife-to-be is suspicious

that the count has given the couple a good room in his castle. Susanna’s

answer is that of a woman who knows the motives of men before they

themselves do.

“Because I’m Susanna,” she tells Figaro. “And you’re a fool.”

Ideally, Brandes said, the character of Susanna “should have a very

specific way of talking” to each character in the opera, whether it’s the

affectionate abuse she administers to Figaro or the proud one-upwomanship

she trades with the countess.”It’s been my goal to find slightly

different ways in which I use my pace of language and affect. She does

juggle all of the balls in this plot and also has to juggle all of these

temperaments.”

If Brandes has developed a close understanding of her character, it’s a

testament to the many performances of “Figaro” she has been involved

with. She played the same role with the operas of Montreal and Quebec

and, just a month ago, sang Susanna’s part with the Philadelphia opera

opposite Bernstein and Rinat Shaham, the boisterous soprano who plays

Cherubino in the current show.

The experience has helped her develop an ear for the nuances of the

performance.

In the fourth act, for example, Susanna sings an aria that is ostensibly

addressed to Count Almaviva but which is actually intended to stoke the

jealousy of Figaro, who she knows is listening.

At some point in the melody, though, the emotional tone of the singing

changes subtly. Susanna no longer seems to be trying to provoke her

beloved but is simply expressing her affection for him. In an opera

filled with ulterior motives and veiled comments, it is a moment of

powerful openness.

“In my own internal monologue during that aria, early on in her heart she

simply can’t hold out in the deception any longer,” Brandes said. “It

really becomes about Figaro, and I think in a way that Figaro does know

that. She is so true in her statement of love that I think even he

recognizes it.”

Brandes pointed out that the nuances of “Figaro” are not only emotional.

“It’s a very political opera,” she said. “The play [by Beaumarchais, on

which the libretto is based] was actually banned in several countries.”

In order to persuade Joseph II of Austria to let Mozart create the opera,

the ruler had to be convinced that “anything that might offend good taste

or public decency” would be excised from the text of the play.

“Mozart really had to jump through hoops,” Brandes said.

In practice, revisions to the work had less to do with sex -- “Figaro” is

still a racy story -- than with the libretto’s critique of the

aristocracy. Figaro’s third-act complaint about the behavior of women,

for example, once had as its target the ills of social injustice.

At its core, though, the play still strikes at the presumptuous behavior

of Lord Almaviva. And if Mozart presents his argument in comic terms, he

nevertheless makes it clear that the o7 droitf7 of that particularo7

seigneurf7 is one that has long since lost its legitimacy.

‘The Marriage of Figaro’

WHERE: The Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive,

Costa Mesa

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. today, 2 p.m. Sunday

HOW MUCH: $32 to $107

PHONE: (714) 740-7878