“The Marriage of Figaro”, Theatre Royal, Glasgow

Mark Brown on Clydeside
★★★★☆
23 May 2026

The mercurial, Andalusian comic hero Figaro was a creation of French author Pierre Beaumarchais (who, interestingly, also dabbled in a bit of espionage, with a lucrative side hustle in arms sales). Like Shakespeare’s Sir John Falstaff, the Sevillano barber-turned-valet has the distinction of both appearing in multiple works of literary fiction and, thereafter, crossing over into opera.

Ava Dodd as Susanna.
Photo credit: Mihaela Bodlovic.

It isn’t hard to see why Mozart and his librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte were attracted to the second play in Beaumarchais’s Figaro Trilogy. The tale of the comeuppance of the arrogant and lecherous aristocrat Count Almaviva at the hands of both his servants and his long-suffering wife will, no doubt, have appealed to the Austrian composer’s taste for liberalism and social equality.

This deserved revival of Sir Thomas Allen’s 2010 production for Scottish Opera opens (after Mozart’s glorious overture) with the focus very much on the workers. The chorus represents the farm labourers on the obnoxious Count’s estate, their haymaking disturbed only by the kind of agrarian love-making that got Scotland’s national bard, Robert Burns, into so much trouble.

It is – thanks in no small measure to the work of designer Simon Higlett – a perfect scene setter for the opera to come. Every one of Higlett’s designs – such as the Count’s spectacular, crimson study – has a delightful, hyper-real aspect to it.

Such creative exaggeration is an ideal partner to opera, that most intrinsically (and pleasingly) hyperbolical of theatrical art forms. Indeed, the characterizations across this staging achieve a marvellous balance between nuanced relatability and embellished performance.

Nowhere is this truer than in English bass-baritone Edward Jowle’s charismatic and agile playing of Figaro. Marvellous Irish soprano Ava Dodd (making her Scottish Opera debut here) is similarly clever, bold and sympathetic in the role of Susanna (the maid who is Figaro’s lover and the unhappy recipient of the lascivious Count’s attentions).

American baritone Ian Rucker is deliciously loathsome as the Count. Swiss-Canadian mezzo-soprano Simone McIntosh (a high-octane, cross-dressed Cherubino) and “Spanish-born British” soprano Alexandra Lowe (the anguished and enraged Countess) also shine in a universally brilliant cast.

Mozart’s score is, needless to say, unerringly generous to players and audiences alike. The orchestra of Scottish Opera, under the baton of Australian-Chinese conductor Dane Lam, renders it with a luxurious lightness and a gorgeous vitality.

The production transfers to Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness.