Did you know that Mozart wrote an opera at eighteen that prefigures much of the later "Marriage of Figaro"? Called "La Finta Giardiniera," it's rarely performed, but we got to see the American premiere of a newish version tonight. The opera was written for Carnival (useful context) and performed only three times, though Mozart adapted a concert version of it later. In 1796, an unknown hand revised it for a larger orchestra in tones consonant with Mozart's later operas, and it was this version, originally spurned by purists (and revived by René Jacobs just a decade ago), that we heard. The music is indeed marvelous, our cast talented as singers as well as buffa actors. But the story, the story! An assistant conductor explained before the performance that the director (from the Hungarian State Opera, in collaboration with San Diego-based Opera NEO) had decided the story, "convoluted even by baroque opera standards," needed some updating, starting with the main premise: the original tells of the reconcilation of an impetuous count and the lover he stabbed in a fit of jealous pique. He ran away, thinking her dead, and it takes many shocks and misunderstandings and a double mad scene for the two (she is the "pretend gardener" of the title) to come together again. So our production added... vampires! (We got two queer characters, too, including a trouser role who changed from trousers to skirts and back again with they/them pronouns in the supertitles, to make it a story of "transformation.") In our version the lady's servant saw her murder and turns her into a vampire (that's them above), and she eventually does the same for the count, whom she hates and loves.
Does it make for a more satisfying story than the redemption of an abuser? I'm not sure - I don't get vampires. (To be fair, I don't "get" Figaro either.) The production's conceit of characters painting each other's originally white costumes in various colors to represent projected passions got old pretty quickly, too. But I was titillated at the thought that this outrageous production had been performed in Budapest, where the singers - half Hungarian, half American - had a six week residency. I was disappointed to learn that the vampires were added only for the San Diego run, but am happy to have been able to see it, fangs and all.