Mozart’s brief 1786 one act opera Der Schauspieldirektor, here adapted under a new title, is contemporaneous with the composition of Le Nozze di Figaro; an amusing trifle with more dialogue than music (the first aria comes thirty minutes after curtain up), singer and writer Christopher Gillett has updated the action to 1800, a mere nine years after Mozart’s death but any idea this version will stay close to the period is quickly torpedoed by some distinctly topical jokes and some occasionally fruity language. Frequently the work verges into meta territory, where the audience is reminded that it is watching a musical comedy - about the production of a musical comedy.
Central to the action is the impresario himself, renamed ‘Leo’, a parody of the tight-fisted authoritarian old style ‘producer’ we know from Broadway satires, only here periwigged and frock-coated a la the period: energetically played by Richard McCabe, Leo dominates the action despite never singing a note and is very much the centre of this somewhat shapeless construction: not so much a play with music as a few arias interspersed with a few jokes, most of them on operatic/musical subjects - Regietheater, ‘difficult’ prima donnas (the appearance of one such from Romania named ‘Angela’ is a rather obvious reference to someone who doesn’t need to be nameless), cast members dropping out at the last minute, the heavy hand wielded by stage management. Some of this is amusing without quite managing to be hilarious but the essential thinness of the material becomes increasingly apparent as the evening goes on.
There is also the unfortunate fact that McCabe’s skill as an actor comfortably exceeds those of his singing colleagues: he can project confidently, reliably hitting the back wall so that every word of the text is heard. As spoken word actors, the singers seem somewhat underpowered, their characters not emerging as vividly in the dialogue as they do in the set piece musical pieces, all of which are well put across. They are baritones Owain Rowlands and Dan D’Souza, sopranos Jessica Hopkins, Nazan Filkret and Jane Burrell and tenors Conor Prendeville and Jamie MacDougall.
As for the score: only some numbers are from Mozart’s original opera, other arias and duets are flown in from Cosi Fan Tutte, Die Zauberflote (a particularly funny interpretation of the Papageno/Papagena duet) and Figaro. So, it’s a bit of a Mozart’s Greatest Hits.
In the pit, Jane Glover magisterially presides over the Buxton Festival Orchestra and there are splendid sets and costumes courtesy of Leo van den Boorn. Musically, this is fine, but one could wish it were a bit more substantial as an entertainment.
https://buxtonfestival.co.uk/whats-on/the-impresario
Reviewer: Paul Ashcroft
On: 17/7/2025
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