Last Updated on October 15, 2026
Glyndebourne’s The Marriage of Figaro Delivers and Delights
4.0 out of 5.0 starsLast night saw the opening of Glyndebourne’s Autumn Season with the delightful first revival of director Mariame Clément’s Festival 2025 production of The Marriage of Figaro, an opera that has been a central plank of the opera house’s programming since the very first Glyndebourne Festival in 1934.
Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, The Marriage of Figaro is a four-act comic opera written in 1786. It takes its inspiration from Beaumarchais’s revolutionary 1784 play ‘La folle journée, ou Le Mariage de Figaro’ that dared to critique the aristocracy, leading to the play being banned. With rave reviews from its first performance The Marriage of Figaro has been consistently ranked as one of the greatest of all operas both by performers and audiences.
The narrative is driven by Count Almaviva’s attempts to assert his ‘droit de seigneur’ over his servant Susanna on the day of her wedding to Figaro, the Count’s steward. Set over the course of one day in the Count’s palace in Seville in the 1820’s we see how Susanna, Figaro and Countess Almaviva plot to thwart the Count’s plans. The Count fights back by insisting that Figaro should marry a much older woman, Marcellina, who it transpires is Figaro’s mother. Through the machinations of Susanna and Countess Almaviva, Figaro marries his bride and the Count is schooled in the virtues of fidelity.
Mariame Clément’s production, ably managed by revival director James Hurley, takes no creative risks but creates a delightful 18th century frame for this most bullet-proof of operas. Sliding screens, rows of doors and rotating sets guiding us through this most labyrinthine of plots, as if a Feydeau farce had been transplanted back a century. Designer Julia Hansen’s sets are heavily influenced by18th-century painter Louis Carrogis Carmontelle, who famously painted a watercolour of Mozart as a child performing with his sister and father. The final act’s set featuring a swing, pavilion, statue, and ornamental gardens was a clear homage to Carmontelle’s landscape paintings. It was both charming and full of comic potential.
The Glyndebourne autumn season is a fantastic showcase for up-and-coming young singers and in this production Jasurbek Khaydarov (Figaro), Madeline Boreham (Countess Almaviva) and Anton Beliaev (Count Almaviva) were all Glyndebourne debutants.
Uzbekistani bass Jasurbek Khaydarov and South Korean soprano Henna Mun, a winner of the 2024 John Christie Award, made a very plausible couple as Figaro and his fiancé Susanna. Khaydarov has a rich-toned voice and his “Aprite un po’ quegli occhi” was dramatically convincing. Khaydarov played the role straighter than Michael Nagl in the 2025 production and this was no bad thing. I’ve been waiting for Henna Mun to take on a leading Mozart role. She gets her chance this season as the original incumbent in the role of Susanna had to pull out giving Mun her breakthrough moment. She was terrific as Phyllis in Mark-Anthony Turnage’s The Railway Children last year and sparkled as Josephine in the ENO’s HMS Pinafore. Coquettish and scene-stealing, her “Venite, Inginocchiatevi” was a masterclass in light Mozartian charm.
Russian baritone Anton Beliaev brought out the comic elements of Count Almaviva. He has a capacity for physical humour and a voice that can veer between entitled outrage and remorse that should see him delivering this role for a long time yet. “Hai già vinta la causa!…Vedrò mentr’io sospiro” was expressive and dynamically delivered.
British soprano Madeline Boreham as Countess Almaviva has a powerful instrument but also displayed a deep emotion in her “Dove Sono i bei Momenti.”
I had enjoyed British bass-baritone Henry Waddington’s Sacristan in Tosca at The Royal Opera House. As Dr Bartolo, the Countess’ former guardian, he was pleasingly florid and expansive. Reprising her role as Marcellina from the Michael Grandage 2022 production of Marriage of Figaro, leading British mezzo-soprano Madeleine Shaw impressed as always with her warm focussed sound.
In the trouser role of Cherubino, British mezzo-soprano Rachel Roper was comically libidinous and sang “Voi che sapete”with precision and elegance.
In the smaller roles English tenor Mark Milhofer’s Don Basilio was suitably comedic and scheming, Russian bass-baritone Alexander Vassiliev was amusing as the drunken gardener Antonio and Chinese soprano Biqing Zhang charmed in the role of his daughter Barbarina Her plangent take on “L’ho perduta” gave evidence that she is one to watch.
Conductor Bertie Baigent brought a tight compact sound out of the Glyndebourne Sinfonia in a dynamic performance that showed much attention to detail.
The autumn season at Glyndebourne has a very different feel to the summer. There is very little picnicking to be seen, dress is smart-casual rather than formal and the shows tend to finish at around 7.30. The pricing makes a trip to Glyndebourne much more accessible than the summer season so this impeccable production would be a great way to dip your toe into the Glyndebourne experience without breaking the bank.
The Marriage of Figaro
14 October – 8 November
Tickets from £15
Glyndebourne, Lewes, East Sussex, BN8 5UU
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