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Review of Two Figaro Operas

by Daisy Brambletoes 

Well folks, I finally got a copy of the two Figaro operas, directed by Jean-Piere Ponnelle, which I have wanted for many years.

Ponnelle is a fine director of opera-on-film, and has filmed both of these operas with meticulously accurate Spanish settings, which I personally find very refreshing, as most productions are made to look French or Italian. As we all know, Beaumarchais was French, Rossini and DaPonte were Italians, and Mozart, naturally, was German – but the setting was always southern Spain. So the two films score very big here. Musically, they are also both excellent productions, and a great deal of fun to listen to. But after that, things become lightly awkward.

Despite the fact that Hermann Prey plays Figaro in both films, the rest of the cast is almost entirely different. They also seem to be set at different moments in time than doesn’t quite juxtapose correctly.

Rossini’s opera is clearly set right at the turn of the century with a few 18th century  vestiges, but a mostly early 19th century atmosphere. Add to that, an amusing portrait of Dr.Bartolo looms in the background, which bears a suspicious resemblance to a famous photo of Salvadore Dali. It is fun to watch and listen to, and the humor is as much in the music itself as anything else – a page Rossini borrowed from Mozart’s book, no doubt. But the comedy here is almost on a Chuck Jones level, and at times I also almost felt I was watching Disny’s comedy-adventure classic, “Zorro”. Many visual references are taken from Goya, as well they should be – particularly Don Basilio, the wicked music teacher, who in this production seems to be some kind of alchemist or dark magician, lifted directly from  one of Goya’s canvases. (Ponnelle used a similar approach in his film of “Madame Butterfly”, showing Chocho against a painted background of flying black crows, creating the look of classic Noh theater.)

The Mozart film, of course, is Mozart at his almost-best (My favorite Mozart opera is still “Die Zauberflote”). In this film, however, Ponnelle falls back on the old gimmick of allowing music to reflect the thoughts of the characters while they stare at the screen with closed mouths. This may work well for reflective arias like those of the Contessa, but it doesn’t always work. Cherubino simply looks speechless and floundering, f’rinstance, and other scenes visually static despite the musical quality. Presumably we are there for Mozart alone, but this is still a movie, and you still want it to look right. Mind, of course, the clever staging of Figaro’s angry aria in Act Four was quite interesting as Figaro has a musical conversation with himself, and it reminds me of Smeagol vs Gollum in “Lord of the Rings”. All the same, in spite of this minor annoyance, the action flows and sparkles, and it is a very enjoyable production. For once Cherubino looks like a boy, and the characters are all well portrayed.

The real problem, however, is one that will forever haunt these two excellent operas. When Beaumarchais wrote the comedies, they flowed together very sensibly and complimented each other. But we’ve lost something in translation. Mozart’s graceful masterpiece involves serious, thought-provoking characters who are funny because Mozart and the circumstances make them so. Rossini, on the other hand, went for laughs and lots of coloratura & patter, and his characters (many of the same ones in Figaro)are cartoon-like people who are difficult to take seriously.

As brilliant as the two operas are individually, they do not stand comfortably together, and even the skills and efforts of Ponnelle to make them do so miss the mark. You can’t watch them together and feel as if you are watching a great comedy and its natural sequel. They are just too different in too many ways.

Do I recommend these films? Yes, certainly. But there will always be the caviat that despite characters with the same names, we are looking at two completely different sets of people, as if they live in alternate universes.

Do yourself a favor – buy them or rent them, and watch them – but on two different days.

But they’re still fun.

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