The Marriage of Figaro Up Close

We went to hear Vancouver Opera's production of Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro".  Normally I don't go to Vancouver Opera productions, as they take place in Vancouver's Queen Elizabeth Theatre, which is a large general purpose auditorium with a wholly unsuitable acoustic for opera.  (People have said that it has been improved lately, though.)  This production, though, was taking place in the Playhouse Theatre, which normally seats around 600 people.   The Playhouse Theatre was designed for plays, and has a very intimate and clear sound, and promised to be ideal for Mozart, whose operas normally don't sound very well in large scale opera houses like the Met in New York.    I enjoyed the production immensely.   The singers were mostly good, and the wonderful comedy of DaPonte's libretto was well acted.   The only odd part was that, given the economics of putting on an opera in a small theater in Vancouver, the orchestra was a reduced one, using 18 instruments.   I have no idea who did the reduction, but most everything worked well; though because of the generous component of wind instruments, the sound was much more focused on the wind instruments than it would have been otherwise.   A purist might object, but Mozart's wind writing is so wonderful that I could hardly complain.    Apparently the production was set in the 26th century, though I would not have known that if I hadn't read it.   Apparently the costumes were 26th century; I barely noticed them.   Leslie Dala did a fine job of conducting, and I went home as happy as could be, though the Mozart music kept running in my head all night when I might have been sleeping.