THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO

by Wolgang Amadeus Mozart
Director: Brad Dalton
Choreographer: Antara Bhardwaj
Set Designer: Steven Kemp
Costume Designer: Deepsikha Chatterjee
Lighting Designer: Anshuman Bhatia

presented at Opera San Jose , 2022

“There’s a wonderfully apt inventiveness to this magnificent new producton, set in British colonial India. To watch a white sahib loll on a couch in lordly indolence, while a coterie of Indian attendants fans him or kneels to shine his shoes, is to feel viscerally the imbalanced power structure that gives the opera its force. Director Brad Dalton ensured that every moment of this dauntingly intricate piece of clockwork machinery - every comedic double-take, every longing glance, every elaborate physical mishap - registered crisply. The result is a production that feels simultaneously reveletory and comfortingly on point. For anyone who knows and loves ‘Figaro,’ this version is full of moments that add a new layer of poignancy to the drama, and others that simply get the familiar moments exactly right. For anyone not yet indoctrinated, I cannot imagine a more welcoming introduction.” - Joshua Kosman, The San Francisco Chronicle

“Once in a blue moon, there comes a production of an old warhorse opera that challenges everything you know about the piece, questions your set beliefs about how things should be presented, delights your senses in the best possible way, gives you a new appreciation for the work, and restores your faith in what a masterpiece it is. Such was the case with Opera San Jose’s new production of ‘Le Nozze di Figaro.’ The strength of director Brad Dalton’s vision lay in the many details that he peppered throughout the whole performance, many of which provided the audience with new perspectives on the scenes. But the seriousness didn’t mean that the evening turned bleak and depressing, oh no, far from it! What was truly refreshing was the way Dalton maintained a perfect balance between the serious and comic moments throughout the opera.” - Michael Anthonio, Parterre Box