The Atlanta Opera resumed its 2025-26 season with performances of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. A favorite repertoire mainstay with audiences worldwide, the Mozart frolic has long been associated with charm, comedy and the undercurrent of distant (or so we believed) sociopolitical tensions which today’s news cycle is actively recalling for reassessment. Depending on the manners by which the ever-present algorithm shapes the perception of individual audience members, Le Nozze di Figaro can make for a night of genuine merriment, nervous laughs and/or awkward silences. Last Saturday’s opening night performance went off with the expected sparkle, a few interesting twists, and an unexpected hiccup.
While new to Atlanta audiences, this production of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, a joined venture between Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Opera Philadelphia, San Diego Opera and Palm Beach Opera has been garnering applause for the past ten years. When not leaning too far into the raunchier boner comedy to be mined within the pages of Lorenzo Da Ponte’s libretto, Director Stephen Lawless offered a traditional interpretation of the opera. Aided by the work of Scenic Designer Leslie Travers, the Almaviva lineage (presumably) frames the proceedings, quite literally, by way of an imposing family tree relief carved unto the two large movable walls which comprise the main set. Within them, hidden doorways and windows help usher the chaos of the opera’s most inopportune situations. Though Mr. Lawless’ handling of the relationships within the play is reasonably conventional, he indulges in the occasional regie twist, most successfully when referencing the revolutionary tensions lurking beneath the Beaumarchais source material – allowing the mounting tensions brewing during the opera’s Act II finale (“Deh signor, nol contrastate”) to find memorable resolution through the servant-led instigation of the delayed nuptials, with the distressed setting of Act IV confirming the dawn of a new world order. His comedic timing was generally alert and natural (the blunt acknowledgement of the double casting of Don Basilio and Curzio was hysterical) inspiring cackles in all the right spots throughout the run of the show.
Absent ever since his Atlanta Opera debut in Donizetti’s La Fille du Regiment in 2018, conductor Christopher Allen was back leading the Atlanta Opera orchestra, adding harpsichord duties to his plate as if making up for the extended absence. His enhanced assignment empowered Mr. Allen to dutifully acknowledge Basilio’s and Marcellina’s omitted soliloquies via the harpsichord line at key junctures of the recitative, while additional nods to Susanna’s alternate arias “Un motto di giogia” and “Al desio di chi t’adora” earned Mr. Allen extra points among those in the know.
Despite observing such traditional performance practices, Mr. Allen permitted principals to grace their vocal line with ornamentation during their reprises, though I suspect with the intension of gracing the Mozartian line rather than to serve his singers. He maintained a good balance between the principals, orchestra and the dimensions of the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, admirably adjusting his tempi to account for the unexpected mishap which threatened to halt the performance at its very start.
Following the overture, the curtain (which remained raised for its duration) was suddenly lowered, and remained so as the measures of the first duettino awkwardly faded away. The house lights came on. Soon after, the general buzz of speculation was interrupted by General and Artistic Manager Tomer Zvulun who informed the audience that soprano Sydney Mancasola, our opening night’s Susanna, had sustained a fall and an injury to her chin which required first aid assistance.
Following an extended ten-minute pause, the performance resumed to a thunderous ovation aimed to rally Ms. Mancasola’ spirits. Whether this or her valiant resolution helped to settle any nerves threatening to spoil her Atlanta Opera debut, we will never know. She remained visibly composed through the opera’s introductory ensembles, delivering a confident reading of what many consider to be the opera’s principal character by the curtain’s fall. Ms. Mancasola’s Susanna was relatable and adept to the comedic synergy encouraged by Mr. Lawless, further supported by an instrument which promoted her cause despite natural limitations. Her soprano has a light, attractive silvery core, most accessible in the middle register, and it was best heard intermingled with her colleagues, projecting past the orchestral sonic wall through a clever assortment of technical knowhow. While her soprano could brighten to perk up her recitative and remained piquant and characterful against her colleagues in their various ensembles, the demands of her famous arias lessened her impact. Here, with adjacent variables removed from the equation, the soliloquies called out her stamina and the integrity of her vocal registers to greater scrutiny, Mozart’s merciless adagio revealing expressive limitations, disembodied singing, and a lack of squillo in the top register. Perhaps her willingness to indulge Mr. Lawless’ inexplicable excesses, which included a change of costume onstage as well as laying prostrate with her feet to the audience during her famous aria, “Deh vieni, non tardar”, exacerbated her position.
Returning to the Atlanta Opera three seasons after his debut as Mozart’s iconic Don Giovanni, bass baritone Brandon Cedel bettered his previous efforts with a vivid portrayal of the lively and assertive Figaro. As previously noted at the time of his debut, Mr. Cedel cuts an imposing physical presence, and possesses a big, booming sound to match, offset by a certain breathiness in emission which might indicate an ever-present conflict between the dueling fachs in his instrument. It is a peculiar voice, with the upper partials often tightening when pressed and threatening to become lachrymose, though he cleverly weaves these particulars to enhance the whole of his zany characterization. Devoid of the polarizing qualities which garner Don Giovannis tepid applause, Mr. Cedel’s masculine bass and comic verve repeatedly capitalized on every opportunity to endear himself to the audience, proving himself adept at both the irony in his challenge to the Count (“Se vuol ballare”) and the comedic patter song in “Aprite un po quel occhi”. He further dazzled the audience by unleashing the darker qualities of his voice when notifying the Count that his valet will bend the knee no more at the start of the Act III finale.
In contrast, Luke Sutliff took some time to acclimate his resources and make a case for the Count Almaviva through the first half of the long evening. His lyric baritone, which has served him well in previous assignments at the Atlanta Opera, betrayed an awkward and underpowered disposition, which Mr. Sutliff was only successful in shaking off during the grand scena which opens Act III, “A gia vinta la causa”. To his great credit, Mr. Sutliff managed to imbue the Count, despite his deplorable behavior, with undeniable charisma, earning the grace of both the audience and Countess, providing the opera with an emotionally satisfying resolution.
Making her debut with these performances, Iulia Maria Dan adds her name to the list of distinguished artists (Teresa Hopkin, Brenda Harris and Katie Van Kooten) who have triumphed in Atlanta as the Countess Almaviva. A young artist of striking good looks, she earned sound ovations by offering a soprano of full lyric possibilities and attractive purity, all the while exhibiting the limitations found in modern singing trends. Though elegantly blended, the registers in her voice are not properly developed, its core often bypassed by a technique favoring placement championing the fumes of the instrument. While this approach allowed Ms. Dan to dazzle the audience with floating strings of shimmering tones over the orchestra, the overall impact of her vocalism was miniature. Expansion into the adjacent repertoire will hopefully encourage further development of this important voice.
On her part, mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb took advantage of the opportunities left unclaimed by her fellow leading ladies in her company debut as Cherubino. Like Ms. Mancasola and Ms. Dan before her, she has youth and good looks on her side, as well as the physique du role to project the boyish and incorrigible Cherubino. Her voice is penetrating, rich and capable of brilliance at the top. Egged on by the nature of her part, she immersed herself into her duties with vivid intensity, her singing characterful and compelling, often matching her physical portrayal of the crude, disrespectful, and aggressive young page. Her weaponization of Cherubino’s emotional kaleidoscope was wonderfully chaotic, and, made sense of Countess Almaviva’s inappropriate attraction to her character by contrasting against the emotional unavailability of her husband. Those charmed by her performance should look forward to next January, when Ms. Chaieb is scheduled to return to Atlanta and measure her worth against a vehicle of an altogether different cloth: Bizet’s Carmen.
These performances served as a sort of homecoming for mezzo-soprano Marianne Cornetti, who began her career as a principal artist at the Atlanta Opera two decades ago. Back in 1996, William Fred Scott, the company’s former Artistic Director, gambled on her possibilities as a dramatic mezzo-soprano and cast her as Azucena in that year’s production of Verdi’s Il Trovatore. The role would introduce Ms. Cornetti to the great international houses the world over, ushering her return to the stage of the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre when she stepped in for an ailing Ewa Podles in 2009. Graced with her presence in our city once again, this time around as Marcellina, I question Mr. Allen’s decision to observe the traditional omission of Marcellina’s aria “Il capro e la capretta”. While the role can be credibly performed by a mezzo-soprano, her aria is most certainly belongs to the soprano ilk, its technical hurdles implying a singer of decided mastery. Ms. Cornetti, an artist familiar with the rigours of Meyerbeer’s Fides and has alternatively earned praise in contralto, dramatic mezzo-soprano as well as dramatic soprano assignments, is thus uniquely positioned to merit its re-establishment. Alas, it was not to be, and Atlanta audiences had to content themselves with Ms. Cornetti’s limited involvement, though her scene chewing antics in her various ensembles more than made up for it.
Bass-baritone Patrick Carfizzi, making his Atlanta Opera debut as Bartolo (he was a reigning Metropolitan Opera Antonio in the mid-2000s) delivered a reading of the pedantic doctor without reverting to cartoonish antics. He distinguished his declaration of vengeance with a poised instrument which remained connected to its core sound throughout its scale. Alongside Marcellina, he was often partnering with three scene-stealing loons entrusted to singers from the Studio Artist Program: Wayd Odle’s clarion tenor stole the spotlight as both Don Basilio and Don Curzio, baritone Kyle White petty Antonio proved an unexpected mighty foe against Figaro’s machinations, and soprano Amanda Sheriff’s Barbarina proved that young artists can set themselves apart when serving honest to goodness singing, if allowed.
The Atlanta Opera will join the Centennial celebration of the premiere of Puccini’s Turandot in April. For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.atlantaopera.org
-Daniel Vasquez
Excellent review!!