Real-Life Married Couple Anchors SF Opera's Figaro Revival

San Francisco Opera opened its revival of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro on Saturday, Oct. 31, at the War Memorial Opera House — and the production's central couple, bass Peter Kellner and soprano Slávka Zámečníková, are married offstage as well as on.

The two Slovakian singers play Figaro and Susanna, valet and maid to Count and Countess Almaviva. Their real-life partnership, the reviewer notes, gives the staging an edge: "If Kellner and Zámečníková make all of the byplay and flirtation look entirely natural, it's not all just great acting: the two are married and brought their cozy intimacy right onto the War Memorial Opera House stage."

Who is in the cast?

The Almavivas are sung by English baritone Thomas Mole and Canadian soprano Olivia Smith, both in role debuts. Smith, a former Adler Fellow, delivers what the review calls "a perfect Countess" — dignified, determined, "her voice aglow with a silvery upper register." Mole's Count "drips with unearned privilege."

The supporting cast includes:

• Alek Shrader as the foppish go-between Don Basilio
• Italian bass Maurizio Muraro, "excellent," as Dr. Bartolo
• Mezzo-soprano Catherine Cook, "coquettish and funny," as Marcellina
• Canadian mezzo-soprano Simon McIntosh, "delightful," as the page Cherubino
• Adler Fellow Sofia Gotch as Barbarina, showing "spunk and a sparkling light soprano"

Kellner, making his company debut, sings the valet "with a warmly inviting voice" and acts with tremendous physicality — useful given the production's mugging and pratfalls. Zámečníková, praised as Adina in the company's 2023 Elixir of Love, was "particularly immaculate" in Susanna's difficult aria "Deh, vieni, non tardar."

Who directs and conducts?

Shawna Lucey, CEO and general director of Opera San José, revives the late Michael Cavanagh's 2019 production. Her staging carries "wit, bawdiness, physical humor to burn and loads of character detail," and it keeps the opera's many plot complications easy to follow — even when it tips into anachronistic farce.

Cavanagh set the action in a mansion in the American South during the founding of the United States. The reviewer finds the setting defensible: the opera's theme of class conflict, inherited from Pierre Beaumarchais's play, resonates with the classless society the American Revolution promised. One caveat follows — American class conflicts, the review notes, do not involve titled nobles.

Sebastian Weigle, debuting as conductor, led a small, nimble orchestra at tempos that "always felt natural." Many arias carried ornaments in their second verses, a period-appropriate touch executed "with stylish aplomb."

What does this revival change for the audience?

For a work that runs nearly four hours and demands impeccable timing, the production's answer is pace: it "moves fast and sounds terrific." The company even displayed the Golden State Valkyries' WNBA championship score on the supertitles before the overture. The reviewer's verdict is sweeping: The Marriage of Figaro "isn't just a manic farce — it's the most humane and perfect work in the vast operatic literature." That claim is arguable; the performance, by this account, earned it.