The Secret Marriage

Published Monday 13 October 2008 at 13:00 by George Hall

Scottish Opera revive Cimarosa’s 1792 opera buffa, based on the English comedy The Clandestine Marriage by Colman and Garrick. It’s a charming piece with an attractive score, and the Italian composer handles the comic situations to advantage, even if it sounds thin by comparison with his greatest contemporary - think Mozart-lite. It’s also a long evening - a few cuts in the second act wouldn’t hurt.

Harry Fehr’s production sets the piece in the fifties, at the upmarket London townhouse home of Geronimo, wonderfully realised in Tom Rogers’s intricate set and his spot-on costumes. A couple of things don’t quite work. One is making Paolino into a household servant. In the original, he is the clerk to Geronimo’s merchant, which is less of a class bridge to jump within the social hierarchy. The second is sending disobedient daughter Carolina off to a convent - not very likely in fifties London.

Other than that, Fehr’s lively, well-observed staging works a treat and most of the cast relishes the comic possibilities, though Andrew Slater’s Geronimo is too strait-laced. Particularly enjoyable are Renate Arends’ sharp-edged Elisetta and Wendy Dawn Thompson’s ripe Fidalma, while Matthew Garrett delivers an elegant Paolino and Quirijn de Lang’s Count Robinson has a touch of Hugh Grant in his well-bred manners. Rebecca Bottone makes a sweet Carolina though her voice has some pallid moments. Scottish Opera’s orchestra and conductor Garry Walker address the score crisply.