This was the second visit to Oxford of the small intimate opera company OperaUpClose. Founded in 2010 and now under the joint artistic directorship of Adam Spreadbury-Maher and Robin Norton-Hale it gained instant renown for an Olivier Award-winning production of La Bohème set in twenty-first century London bed-sit land. This translation in time and space was extremely successful, drawing unexpected parallels between the life of young people struggling to earn a living, here and there, now and then. The latest offering from this Company was announced as a version of Rossini’s comic masterpiece moved from Beaumarchais’ Seville to the England of Jane Austen. In this version, Count Almaviva, (here as the Marquis of Bath – not inappropriately), is trying, incognito, to woo the young heiress Rosina, by insinuating himself in various guises into the Salisbury household of her guardian and suitor Dr Bartleby with the aid of his factotum Figaro the barber. Other characters are Mr Basil, Rosina’s music teacher and Bertha the maid. (For perspective, the opera was first performed in 1816, the year of publication of Emma.)

The question we were all asking in the foyer on arrival was: would the audience be required to participate, as it was in La Bohème, by mingling with the singers as the crowd in the Café Momus? On this occasion not. We entered the auditorium to find an unusual amount of space occupied by the stage, furnished with back curtains, three coloured picture-windows of the English countryside and innumerable white chairs on castors which moved around, grouped to represent furniture and as props, including the Marquis’ horse (á la Ionesco). The only audience participation was Figaro’s leaflets, advertising his services, handed out to selected members with ad lib comments on their needs for them, during the Factotum aria.

This was a hilarious performance, doing justice to the overlying influence of Rossini’s score. It was sung in a new English version by Robin Norton-Hale accompanied by solo piano. Emily Leather the pianist showed amazing technical prowess and powers of endurance, the repeated notes and staccato scales of the accompaniment retaining clarity and precision from the first notes of the overture to the final sextet. The singing on this occasion was far better than previously. The principals, Elinor Jane Moran as Rosina and Philip Lee, Marquis of Bath, we had heard before as Mimi and Rodolfo. Rossini’s music was far better suited to their light-opera style of singing than to that of Puccini. Rosina was particularly youthful and acted with great charm with a mixture of teenage innocence and knowingness (of which we have to be so wary these days). One could foresee her difficulties to come in Mozart’s sequel. Lee played the Marquis in his various guises with great panache, though whether his drunken dragoon was not a bit over the top for Jane Austen if not for Seville remains a question. Stephen John Svanholm gave a convincing picture of Figaro and the character roles of Dr Bartleby (Dickon Gough), Mr Basil (Julian Charles) and Bertha (Louise Lloyd) were all excellently played. The last, in her extended aria bemoaning the servant’s lot, was particularly effective.

The transport from Seville was only partially successful. Like many productions based on a clever notion, the director appeared to run out of ideas as things went on. The opening was promising. Reference to and direct quotes from Austen’s writing worked well, as did the setting of one of Rosina’s Second Act arias to Shelley but after a time the opera relapsed to a timeless opera buffa style with modern infelicities such as ‘you’re joking’, replacing potential subtlety by sheer entertainment – but none the worse for that. The men’s words were perfectly clear but I had to struggle with the ladies’.

The audience went away happy, looking forward to the next visit of this company.