Sammy sosa marriage of figaro

In 2015, director Barbara Gaines’ Lyric Opera production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s  “The Marriage of Figaro” became the first production of Anthony Freud’s formal tenure as Lyric’s general director.

On Saturday that same staging, now starring Peter Kellner, Ying Fang, Federica Lombardi, Gordon Bintner and Kayleigh Decker and conducted by Erina Yashima, coincided with the arrival of John Mangum in that same role.

I expected Mangum to come out on stage Saturday night and introduce himself to what was a packed house at Lyric, though he didn’t.

“The Marriage of Figaro” (the libretto is by Lorenzo da Ponte) is one of the most enduring and popular titles in the repertoire, perhaps partly on the basis of some folks expecting to hear “Largo al Factotum,” which actually is from Gioachino Rossini’s “Barber of Seville,” a separate opera that shares as its source the 18th century French playwright Pierr