Audacious, vivacious talent

Bangkok Youth Opera should take a bow for its wonderful staging of The Marriage Of Figaro

- WILLIAM NIALL MORRIS

Hence, when an opera goes according to plan, it really can be considered a minor miracle.

Such was the case for the premiere of Bangkok Youth Opera’s sparkling production of Mozart's Le Nozze Di Figaro at the Chulalongkorn University Music Hall earlier this month. Slick and well oiled from start to finish, the musical score was meticulously prepared by Thailand’s uber-talented conductor and Mozart specialist Trisdee Na Patalung.

Premiered in 1784, Beaumarchais’ play, on which the opera is based, created a scandal in its day as it was the first time servants were applauded in public for getting the better of their masters. Indeed, Napoleon Bonaparte called Figaro, “the Revolution already put into action” and the play is often cited as a foreshadowing to the grim fate of the French aristocratic class in 1793.