A lightness of touch yet shot through with seriousness: a new Marriage of Figaro at Opera North with an engaging sense of ensemble

Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro, Act 4 – Gabriella Reyes, James Newby – Opera North, 2026 (Photo: Tristram Kenton)

Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro; Liam James Karai, Hera Hyesang Park, James Newby, Gabriella Reyes, Frances Gregory, director: Louise Muller, conductor: Valentina Peleggi; Opera North at Leeds Grand Theatre
Reviewed 14 February 2026

An updating which balanced act of appealing to old stagers like myself whilst being
approachable for those new to the opera, with nary a hint of dumbing
down thanks to an ensemble production with the whole cast seeming to enjoy telling us this story

Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro is not just one of the world’s greatest operas, it is one of those bread and butter works that companies need in their repertoire. And for a touring company like Opera North, they need a production that is accessible to those who have never seen the opera before whilst at the same time doing the work full justice.

Director Louise Muller‘s new production for Opera North manages to do just that. Designed by Madeleine Boyd, the staging sets the opera in contemporary England and does so rather imaginatively. The current tour has 14 performances with some double casting and largely younger singers so that casting was very much age appropriate.

On Saturday 14 February at Leeds Grand Theatre we caught Valentina Peleggi conducting, with Liam James Karai as Figaro, James Newby as the Count, Gabriella Reyes as the Countess, Hera Hyesang Park as Susanna, Frances Gregory as Cherubino, Charlotte Bowden as Barbarina, Jonathan Lemalu as Bartolo, and Katherine Broderick as Marcellina. 

The setting was an English country house. The type of venue familiar to most of the audience, yet moving an opera like The Marriage of Figaro into the present is a challenge: the class hierarchies need to remain believable and with this particular opera the droit de seigneur remains an issue.

Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro, Act 4 – Liam James Karai, Hera Hyesang Park – Opera North, 2026 (Photo: Tristram Kenton)

Muller and Boyd managed the transition admirably, with a setting in a crumbling country pile, complete with buckets for water drips and a guided tour. In an article in the programme booklet, Muller had some interesting things to say about the opera, and it is a pleasure to report that these ideas transferred into a coherent and engaging production.

In this version, the Countess is pregnant and Act Three takes place on a split stage, half the Count’s billiard room, half the new nursery. The wedding at the end of that act seems to be taking place indoors after being rained off outside, and the final act takes place in and around the stables.

During the overture, Muller set up the plot so far via a series of vignettes when we saw the Count and Countess move from young love to indifference, but also the relationship between Figaro and Susanna grow and deepen. The issue of droit de seigneur was finessed, making the Count to be a compulsive philander. The hierarchy was believable. Figaro and Susanna were senior staff, almost but not quite friends/contemporaries to the Count and Countess whilst below them were the real workers. Choreographer Rebecca Howell gave a certain stylised feel to the movement, this was certainly not a super realistic staging. The result was funny, yet took the characters completely seriously. One very big plus point was that Muller and Boyd had found believable solutions to the farcical elements at the ends of Acts One and Two.

Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro, Act 1 – Opera North, 2026 (Photo: Tristram Kenton)

Liam James Karai made a strong Figaro. His first aria was firm without the anger getting the upper hand. He was an engaging conspirator with a strong element of physicality to his performance, yet in the last act his confusion at the hands of Hera Hyesang Park’s Susanna was ultimately touching. Butter definitely would not melt in the mouth of this Susanna, Park made her retiring but poised and clearly in control. Park had a lovely line in expressive body language and facial expressions which complemented her profoundly beautiful singing.

During his Act Three solo, James Newby brought a lovely element of ‘little boy lost’ to the Count’s confusion. He was selfish and thoughtless without being overly nasty or angry. Above all, Newby gave the man charm so that you could understand how he continued to get away with his various seductions. The key to any production of this opera is the ending, the question of where the Count and Countess’s relationship is going. It is to Muller’s credit that she really did keep us guessing, whilst Newby and Gabriella Reyes brought a believable element of ‘will they/won’t they’ to the Count and Countess’s relations. Reyes rich voice brought a melancholy depth to the Countess’s arias, and her whole approach to the character was both believable and vibrant. This Countess was certainly not made of porcelain.

Frances Gregory’s Cherubino was something of a brat. Delightfully so. But it was clear that Muller did not fall for the character’s charms, thankfully, and the scene between Gregory and Reyes in Act Two made it clear that this Countess understood boundaries and was not tempted by the youthful ardour of Gregory’s Cherubino. Gregory also sang Cherubino’s arias engagingly, so we knew why the character could charm so. Charlotte Bowden did her best with Barbarina, a woefully underused character. But her blackmailing of the Count in Act Three was a delight, and she sang the Act Four aria with great charm.

Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro, Act 1 – Katherine Broderick, Jonathan Lemalu – Opera North, 2026 (Photo: Tristram Kenton)

There can be few sopranos who move happily between Wagnerian heroines and Marcellina, yet Katherine Broderick did so with winning charm and a lightness of touch that made this Marcellina rather a vivacious delight and less of the harridan. It was such an engaging performance that I was sad that she did not get her Act Four aria, even though it does hold up the action. Jonathan Lemalu made a fine foil as Bartolo, giving a vibrant account of his Act One aria.

Daniel Norman’s Don Basilio was annoying rather than oily, which was a nice change, whilst Kamil Bien was woefully underused as Don Curzio. (In the premiere under Mozart the two roles were doubled). Jamie Woollard made a wonderfully civilised Antonio, with little mugging or pretend drunkenness.

The chorus don’t do a lot, but they did it very well and entered with a will into the concept of being the staff, workers and visitors to the house. In the pit, Valentina Peleggi kept things flowing. This is a long opera, and she made sure the drama had the right momentum, yet there was space in the slower arias, so Reyes’ Countess never felt in any way rushed. Under continuo player Annette Saunders the recitatives were nicely sprightly.

Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro, Act 3 – Hera Hyesang Park, James Newby – Opera North, 2026 (Photo: Tristram Kenton)

This felt very much like an ensemble production with the whole cast seeming to enjoy telling us this story. At no point did you feel anyone saying ‘look at me, aren’t I funny’. Yet there was a lightness of touch to the whole that was shot through with seriousness, the troubles of these people were real. You felt that this production managed the balancing act of appealing to old stagers like myself whilst being approachable for those new to the opera, with nary a hint of dumbing down.