Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The Royal Opera ended last season with a summer tour to Japan, Antonio Pappano’s last engagement with the company as music director. There is a one-year interregnum before his successor, Jakub Hrůša, takes up the reins, and the programming in the interim looks predominantly safe and solid.The 2024-25 season has opened earlier than usual with two old favourites, David McVicar’s vivacious production of Le nozze di Figaro, which dates back to 2006, and Richard Eyre’s handsome La traviata, even older, from 1994.The second performance of the Mozart drew an audience notably younger than usual, probably attracted by lower prices on the under-25s scheme. Most were clearly seeing the opera for the first time and their spontaneous laughter at the twists and turns of Beaumarchais’s plot must have been a tonic for the singers.McVicar likes to come back to rehearse revivals of his productions and this time round was as sharp as 2006, and different, too. At one point a lustful Cherubino found himself clasping the Countess round the legs and did not know what to do with his luck — a delightful flash of adolescent angst.Susanna is often the catalyst in this opera, but here Ying Fang played a delightful, smiling future bride to Luca Micheletti’s assertive Figaro rather than the driver of the action. The cut-glass purity of her singing was outstanding. Micheletti has the advantage of being a native Italian in the recitative, but was rather bluntly forceful elsewhere. Maria Bengtsson returns as a most elegantly poised Countess, her soprano alluringly shot through with many hues, and Huw Montague Rendall matches her, playing the Count as a suave, calculating seducer. His lithe, young baritone could benefit from stronger projection, but the top notes sound effortless. Ginger Costa-Jackson is the fired-up Cherubino, who raises the heat of the drama at every appearance.The rest of the cast is acceptable and Julia Jones conducts with an energy that draws the maximum potential from the music. The orchestra, although sometimes too prominent, seethes with friction and intensity. ★★★★☆ To September 15The revival of the Verdi is less memorable, though the three central roles are well enough taken. The evening belongs, as it should, to Aida Garifullina’s Violetta. Her voice never loses quality and the bright, focused sound serves her as well in the agility of the first act as it does in the slower, lyrical music. In period make-up she passably resembles the real-life Violetta of Marie Duplessis, whose image is seen at the start. There is a brilliance to Garifullina in the party scene, together with moments of individuality later, such as the long hesitation before she gives in to Giorgio Germont’s demands of her, that create for this Violetta a personality of her own.Both Francesco Demuro and George Petean have sung their roles here before. Demuro’s Alfredo sounded a touch strained at times, but signed off with a melting contribution to the last duet. Petean makes a more warmly paternal Giorgio Germont than most and sings with comparable sympathy. Conductor Alexander Joel provides uncontroversial support. ★★★☆☆ To September 21, rbo.org.uk
