Swinging Mozart, Le Nozze de figaro, Glyndebourne, Seven Magazine Review By the end of this festival season, Le nozze di Figaro will have notched up 500 performances at Glyndebourne, but it is not merely numbers that make Mozart's masterpiece the quintessential Glyndebourne opera. Figaro was there at the house's opening in 1934 and again when the new theatre was inaugurated in 1994, and its familiarity only raises the stakes for each new production: this one - the first there in 12 years - is easily the hot ticket of the season. It is also the first new production in the hands of music director-designate, the young conductor Robin Ticciati, due to take over in 2014. He drives the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with a wonderful sense of dramatic lightness, allowing the period instruments to determine the natural pace. But he can be assertive, ensuring that the recitatives move with theatrical energy. It all adds up to a stylishly Mozartian performance. Michael Grandage's production, however, was the talking point before opening night, and though he springs few real surprises, he supplies elegance with a twist. Returning to the house where he made his operatic debut only two years ago with a traditional-looking Billy Budd, this in-demand director now indulges in some gentle updating while keeping the work's fabric intact. Cue visually rich textures decorated with Andalusian tiles and lattice windows, a space atmospherically lit by Paule Constable - but cue also hippy-trippy clothes and bohemian hair. The setting works well for the free love the Count seeks, less well for the class conflicts that originate in Beaumarchais, but Grandage draws carefully observed characterisations. Audun Iversen's firmly sung Count, complete with a curling lip, dominates as he should, though Vito Priante's lively Figaro and Lydia Teuscher's shimmering Susanna have well-matched presence. Played by such veterans as Ann Murray and Andrew Shore, Marcellina and Bartolo nearly steal the show; for once it was a pity that they lost their Act IV arias, and Alan Oke's superbly louche Basilio is also uncommonly memorable. In an outstanding performance, the fast-rising American mezzo Isabel Leonard makes her British debut as a charismatic Cherubino. Sally Matthews's Countess is the blank spot here, little more than a singing clothes horse, but overall this Figaro is very nearly vintage Glyndebourne. Glyndebourne, to Aug 22, www.glyndebourne.com