Presentation of the Model for Le nozze di Figaro (16.06.2014)

On March 21, 2014, the Novaya Opera Artistic Board discussed the model of the production. The production team comprises the Novaya Opera’s stage director Aleksey Veiro and a German group: set designer Ulrike Jochum, costume designer Jan Meier, lighting designers Hannes Sesemann and Hans Fründt, and producer Peter Schwarz.

The first thing the stage director drew attention to was the opera’s storyline. He noted that the audience would not be lost in upheavals of the plot as Beaumarchais’s comedy is a well-known story about dexterous lackey Figaro, his fiancée Susanna, haughty Count Almaviva, young Cherubino and other characters.

The producers do not aim to make a surprising original interpretation. They just seek to find new meanings. “This project is an attempt to surpass the boundaries of situation comedy, to reveal a parable in a comic scene, to show the unseen in Mozart’s music,” said Aleksey Veiro.

The empty space of the first-act is like a blank sheet of paper which will be filled in during the evening. The trap-doors will let in set elements, props, and characters. “All this is theatre” is the stage director’s idea which is to be emphasized by the appearance of scene-shifters and stage hands during the action and set change in front of the audience. After the final scene in the garden, the stage will be empty again because the crazy day is over and tomorrow is unpredictable.

The lighting plot plays an important role in this production. Each act has its own colour and light characterizing the action. Light changes will correspond to daylight changes. Early morning passes into noon, while evening light becomes a starry sky in the finale.

There will be a lot of play scenes. For example, Cherubino will escape from Susanna’s room through a window-frame which stage hands will be “accidentally” carrying at that moment.

The costumes were also presented. They are not connected with any particular style or epoch, but characterize each character, underlining his/her specific features.

The model was approved unanimously.

Dmitry Sibirtsev, Novaya Opera General Director:
“The most important thing is that the relations between the characters will not be changed or distorted. If you preserve the story and the psychological bonds, a stage interpretation will not cause controversy”.

Mikhail Muginstein, musicologist, member of the Novaya Opera Artistic Board:
“Moscow needs a production of Le nozze di Figaro. The Bolshoi has a semi-staged youth version, and in the summer Don Giovanni is premiered at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theatre. And our production fits well. It will be curious”.