The upcoming New Zealand Opera production of The Marriage of Figaro is a radical tale with strong feminist underpinnings, and it’s headed up by a team of some of opera’s finest women. Cityscape talks life, love and revolution with the creative team.

Director Lindy Hume

Have you directed The Marriage of Figaro before? I have not. And so it’s nice to be doing it for the first time, at this advanced age!

Can you tell us a little bit about the opera without giving too much away? The whole thing is set in one single day of madness. It’s an intertwining plot of love, scheming and deception. Figaro is to marry a Countess’s maid, Susanna, who the Count is planning to bed, as he believes it’s his right. The young couple set about exposing the older man’s lechery, and he in turn sets about revenge.

Is it a love story or something more? It’s much more than a love story. I mean, it is a love story in that there is a lot of love in there, but there’s also a lot of pain. Because it’s the beginning of one marriage and the middle of another marriage. And so those two things collide. The Count and the Countess are starting to cope with their reality, and both of them are very attracted to other people, who happen to be people they aren’t married to.

Read Lindy's full Q&A here

Conductor Zoe Zeniodi

How did you get into opera? When I was little, at home, unattended, as things used to be back then, I remember coming back from kindergarten and putting on a video tape that I had found on a shelf which showed a lady being in agony for a long time and dying on her couch. I loved ‘dying’ with her every day on my couch after school. It was a daily ritual for me. I had never realised what I was watching, until much later, in my 30s, I found that old tape again and decided to watch it. It was La Traviata by Verdi.

Have you spent much time in New Zealand before? No, this is my first time visiting this wonderful country – I hope to see as much of it as I can! And certainly, visit more than once.

Read Zoe's full Q&A here

Assistant Director Eleanor Bishop

You’re known for directing political productions – can you tell us about the motivations for your work? Ever since I was young I have found inner strength and power in female-driven stories – as an artist and an audience member. I make theatre because throughout history the stage has always been a revolutionary place. It’s a way to take apart the world as it stands and to imagine a new world.

Who’s your favourite character? Cherubino. It’s a ‘breeches role’ which means it is a female performer playing a male role. I was absolutely gobsmacked and overjoyed when I first encountered this convention. It’s so subversively queer.

Read Eleanor's full Q&A here

Scenographer Tracy Grant Lord

What makes a good scenographer? I think you need an understanding of scale so you can imagine people and objects in space and a broad-
ranging vision for storytelling. Also, an awareness of harmony. Scenography is about creating a complete world with all its intrinsic dimensions on stage, and harmony is about allowing provision for that world to then sing.

What can you tell us about the aesthetic of this production of The Marriage of Figaro? Lindy Hume asked that papers, letters and contracts are the world of this opera and that the qualities of paper could become the unifying theme. She described the beauty and permanence of draughtsmanship and suggested that documentation, both architectural and legal, could literally become the parchment canvas of the storytelling.

Read Tracy's full Q&A here

The Marriage of Figaro
Isaac Theatre Royal
Thursday 8 – Tuesday 13 July
nzopera.com