Opera is like an X-rated episode of Seinfeld

If you are wanting to try opera, go see The Marriage of Figaro - it’s more of a Seinfeld sitcom than a classic opera.

The Marriage of Figaro stars Sofia Tronscoso and Jeremy Kleeman.

Revenge, disguise, love, trickery and a wedding ... are we talking about an episode of Married At First Sight? Nup.

We’re actually referring to Mozart’s famous opera The Marriage of Figaro which offers so much more than reality television. Plus music from the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and singing by our top opera stars and the Opera Queensland Chorus.

So turn off the telly and book a ticket for an opera that has everything, including a happy ending,

And it’s all about love - on stage and off. In this Opera Queensland production, which opens next week in the Playhouse at QPAC, there’s love on stage and off.

Sofia Troncoso and Jeremy Kleeman for The Marriage of Figaro.

Take, for example, leading lady Sofia Troncoso, 31 who plays Susanna, a role that will be also covered by Katie Stenzel in a big show that has an alternate cast.

Conductor Dane Lam, 36, who is also Opera Queensland’s music director and Troncoso were recently married. Lam will conduct as Mozart himself did, conducted the very first production from behind a keyboard.

On stage his wife will follow his lead and she says it’s a gift that they are both in the same show.

“A production like this is a dream come true for a married couple in the arts,” Troncoso says. “But I told Dane ... in the rehearsal room you are my music director, not my husband.”

Troncoso has performed in The Marriage of Figaro before in an English language version with the English National Opera.

The Opera Queensland production is in the traditional Italian. Troncoso says people often mistake her for Italian but her family heritage is actually South American. Her mum has been a Bossa Nova singer she tells us.

“But I studied Italian in Italy for five months and immersed myself in the language,” Troncoso says.

“And having done it before I have the character of Susanna in my head and she seems like an old friend.”

Dane Lam with partner Sofia Troncoso. Picture: Steve Pohlner

Lam and Troncoso both have international careers but Covid-19 brought them to Brisbane, Lam’s hometown and they have stayed and become royalty in the local arts scene.

Lam muses that he should be conducting The Marriage of Figaro right now in Xi’an in China. He is principal conductor of the Xi’an Symphony Orchestra.

“I’ve done this opera before in Xi’an and I’m meant to be performing it right now. But we opted to stay in Australia.”

Lam will be playing a modern Fortepiano as a “nod to Mozart”. He says it’s been wonderful to be in a production with his wife.

It’s been a lovely experience working with Sofia,” Lam says.

“We have never done something like this before. It’s quite hard to leave the rehearsal in the rehearsal room. Being able to bounce ideas off each other helps.”

Both agree that The Marriage of Figaro is the perfect opera for the moment. It is funny and features some of the greatest opera music ever written.

It’s an opera in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premiered at the Burgtheatre in Vienna on May 1, 1786 with Mozart himself conducting the first two performances, conducting seated at the keyboard as was the custom of the day - a custom Lam will follow .

The libretto is based on the 1784 stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journee, ou le Marriage de Figaro (The Mad Day, or The Marriage of Figaro) and it tells how the servants Figaro and Susanna succeed in getting married, foiling the efforts of their philandering employer, Count Almaviva (Jose Carbo and Shaun Brown), to seduce Susanna and teaching him a lesson in fidelity in the process.

Jeremy Kleeman.

The lead Figaro in this production is London-based baritone Jeremy Kleeman 30 (Timothy Newton is the other Figaro), a Melburnian who came to Brisbane from the UK and spent to weeks in quarantine before rehearsals.

“In quarantine it was difficult to not have an opening window with fresh air as the airconditioning can be quite drying but I am just very grateful to get back to Australia and I can confirm that the walls had much better soundproofing than my apartment back in London.

Kleeman says this opera is a full drama with music and singing.

“The genius lies in just how inseparably connected the drama, the music and the language are, which is such a gift for a performer,” Kleeman says.

“I have been involved in two previous productions. Figaro is a passionate and multi talented man, quick witted but perhaps not as quick at seeing the big picture. I do find a lot of myself in him - I love that we see him at both at his brilliant best and suspicious worst across the crazy day on which the opera takes place.”

Director Patrick Nolan says this is one of the greatest love stories ever told and this time it has a contemporary setting.

“It’s a story for the here and now but it draws on a rich history,” Nolan says.

“It’s the perfect gateway opera because it’s such a cracking good yarn and the music is easy. And it’s funny. It’s a sitcom, like an X-rated episode of Seinfeld. Figaro has a lot of Seinfeld in him actually ... the world happens around him and he tries to make sense of it. And Susanna is a bit like Elaine ... smart, but controlling. And maybe the Count is Kramer. It’s a very complex piece and sometimes there can be ten people on stage all singing different things.

“Mozart has an extraordinary instinct for drama and revealing the drama through the music. This is a huge part of why it has survived. He represents humanity and he understood humanity.”

It’s Nolan’s second time directing this work, the last time being 20 years ago. Coming back to it is a joy.

“But I’m a very different person,” Nolan says.

The Marriage of Figaro costumes.

Being a big production sets and costumes are important to give the full operatic experience and set and costume designer Marg Horwell is the brains behind how the opera will look. She’s an amazing talent and anyone who saw the extraordinary frocks she created for Opera Queensland’s Lorelei earlier this year will know she is capable of dazzling audiences.

“Marg does an amazing frock,” Patrick Nolan says.

Horwell, who is from Melbourne, has been here working behind the scenes with a team of seamstresses.

“We are making it all here and we have an amazing team,” Horwell says.

“It’s very lush but quite eclectic. Fashion wise it references current fashion.” With some embellishments. We’re talking sequins and fringes and a “massive coat made out of pink hair”.

“One dress is like a big bell,” Horwell says.

“You can’t turn around in it without hitting a table. There’s a beautiful awkwardness.”

Patrick Nolan.

And that adds to the fun in what is essentially a rom-com. Maybe the best rom-com ever written.

“This is the opera that changed the direction of the art form,” Nolan says.

“When it premiered in 1786 audiences were intrigued as they watched real people wrestling withy feelings of desire, betrayal, remorse, unbridled lust ... feelings they knew well themselves. This is key to Figaro’s enduring legacy. Opera up until that point in time centred on epic narratives about inaccessible characters - gods, demigods, mythical creatures and the like. There’s a reason The Marriage of Figaro remains one of history’s most enduring operas and one of the world’s most performed. It is full of real, emotionally rich characters- flawed, funny, tragic, witty and very relatable.

“Mozart serves up the comedy of Fawlty Towers, the Italian energy of La Dolce Vita and the emotional potency and epic drama of The Sopranos. What’s not to love?”

The Marriage of Figaro, Playhouse, QPAC, July 15 to 31; oq.com.au