Barbara Gaines draws out comedy in Lyric's 'Figaro'

Chicago Shakespeare Theatre founder and artistic director Barbara Gaines takes a broad comic approach to directing Lyric Opera of Chicago's hilarious new production of "The Marriage of Figaro." It's a work sure to upset many Mozart purists, who may find the production too cartoonish.

But others will appreciate that Gaines' gloves-off approach to Mozart and librettist Lorenzo da Ponte's great opera buffa from 1786 emphasizes all of its inherent silliness and lustiness.

Either way, it's clear that Gaines - in her second Lyric outing - loves this opera about a harried valet and his fiancee overcoming numerous obstacles and outwitting their on-the-prowl employer on their wedding day. So it's only natural that Gaines would want to make it as accessible as possible.

The production features a high number of visual jokes and physical groping gags so audiences are kept continually chuckling. Colin Ure's punchy updated projected English translations that use such expressions as "sleazebag" are also an accommodation to modern-day audiences.

This "Figaro" has been blessed with a young and attractive cast that is quite game for executing Gaines and her collaborators' oversize comic visions. These include donning costume designer Susan Mickey's over-the-top outfits (note the symbolic tricolor scheme of the principal servants' uniforms) and especially all the romping around production designer James Noone's pushed-to-the-front sets that prominently utilize an oversize luxury bed for the Countess' boudoir in Act II.

The Lyric didn't stint with any of the musical values for its new "Figaro." In his American debut, Hungarian conductor Henrik Nanasi leads the Lyric Opera Orchestra in a fleet and attentive account of the score that also highlights the vocal delights of the heavenly cast.

As the wily title valet, Czech bass-baritone Adam Plachetka pairs well with the spitfire German soprano Christiane Karg as his cunning fiancee, Susanna. Together, they get across all the couple's wedding-day frustrations which include outwitting the advances of the lecherous Count Almaviva (an imposing performance by Italian bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni) and coping with the wrong-place-wrong-time shenanigans of the randy pageboy Cherubino (Israeli mezzo-soprano Rachel Frenkel).

As the despondent Countess Almaviva, Gurnee native Amanda Majeski beautifully fills out her character's emotions and glamorous costuming, though some might have liked a trifle more of a lush bloom in her soprano voice.

Mozart traditionalists may prefer a more reverential approach than what is on offer at the Lyric. But they should also remember that Mozart's personal letters are scattered with profanity and scatological humor (as presented in Peter Shaffer's drama "Amadeus"), so Gaines' emphasis on bawdy comedy makes "Figaro" as crowd-pleasing as possible.