Locked down we may be, and cut off from attending both professional and amateur theatre and music events, but ever more interesting opportunities are being made available online. One that I've just heard of, courtesy of Alexandra Park Neighbours, is a recording of a semi-staged production of Mozart's opera The Marriage of Figaro, performed at St James Muswell Hill by Fortismere Community Orchestra and Choir and directed by Joseph Winters from the Almeida Theatre.
We're going to meet a self-satisfied politician who believes that he can own any woman that he likes... (Quote From the narrator's introduction)
This is what Annabel Gregory, one the people behind Alexandra Park Neighbours, wrote after seeing the production - bear in mind that this was during the summer of 2019 - a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then!
"Hugely enjoyable semi-staged production of Mozart's the Marriage of Figaro last Saturday in St. Andrew's Church (heat no problem …) by Fortismere Community Orchestra and Choir. Directed by Joseph Winters (resident at the Almeida theatre), it tells a wishfully hopeful tale of the modern day.
"The Count is of course a certain notorious MP for Oxbridge, who has recently been made Foreign Secretary by the PM. He has been trying to seduce his cleaner, Susanna, regardless of his recent statements against harassment at work. Susanna and the security guard Figaro live in the basement of the Count's house in Kensington. With the help of a chorus of cleaners, and others of the Count's minions, he is by the end of the opera brought to his knees to ask forgiveness. Privilege is deposed, and reconciled with the community …
"Wonderful singing (and acting) from the semi-professional soloists – I thought Susanna and the Count were particularly notable.
"The opera was apparently written only 3 years before the outbreak of the French Revolution, and Napoleon later proclaimed it as the revolution already in action !"
You can stream the video below. If you have slow broadband, you can download it from this page.