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Opera

WNO reminds us Figaro's a comedy – which is no bad thing

But Elena Langer's new sequel, Figaro Gets a Divorce, can't quite shed the baggage

5 March 2016

9:00 AM

5 March 2016

9:00 AM

The Marriage of Figaro

Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, and touring until 9 April

Figaro Gets a Divorce

Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, and touring until 7 April

Near the end of Elena Langer’s new opera Figaro Gets a Divorce, as the Almaviva household — now emigrés in an unnamed 1930s police state — prepares to flee, the Countess announces that she intends to leave her trunk behind. It’s not the subtlest moment in David Pountney’s libretto. Any opera that sets itself up as a sequel to The Marriage of Figaro is already courting comparisons that are both completely unavoidable and massively unfair.

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