Never has that single day of torment, caprice and folly fled by so fast. Time’s wingéd chariot hurtles across the dawn-to-dusk universe of Mozart’s Figaro in this latest revival of David McVicar’s 2006 production, thanks to the virtuoso charioteer in the pit: that Mozart veteran supreme, Charles Mackerras.

Amid the relentless detail and activity of Leah Hausman’s revival direction, one single energy propels this folle journée – and it is a musical one. Mackerras makes absolutely no concessions. He pushes the orchestra and every singer to an extreme that raises the temperature and the stakes. The Act II confrontation between Cherubino and the Countess teeters on the very brink. And the Act III finale – a thrilling crescendo of a distant wedding march, a holding back, and a leaping forward into dance – takes the breath away.

All the more pity that McVicar’s final act – a bosky trompe l’oeil of a garden within a cluttered interior – still comes over as the production’s single flaw, and still weakens the impact of the great forgiveness moment. Or was it the singers, this time round? While Peter Mattei makes a notable house debut as a smouldering Count – controlling, yet inwardly out of control – Barbara Frittoli’s Countess tugs at all too few heartstrings. The Mozartian heart is simply not beating there, and her two great arias sound worldweary in quite the wrong way.

So what of Figaro and Susanna? Both have been put through their paces recently on this stage: Ildebrando D’Arcangelo as Escamillo, and Aleksandra Kurzak as Adina. Immaculately musically prepared, they sing with aplomb and assurance. But their characterisation, both musical and physical, pales before what is this time round an exceptional supporting cast. They need to learn something from the sheer focus, flair and robust imagination of the Marcellina of Ann Murray and the Bartolo of Robert Lloyd – a formidable and beautifully detailed double act, complemented by a delectably dandified Don Basilio from Robin Leggate.

Apart from Mackerras, the star of the evening is Anna Bonitatibus, who brings her experience of baroque musicianship to the role of Cherubino, to compelling effect. Her Voi, che sapete, duskily voiced and movingly ornamented, created the most rapt silence and the loudest applause of the evening. And there is Barbarina, too: in Kishani Jayasinghe (a Jette Parker Young Artist) a presence who lights up the stage. I can’t wait for her to fledge into a Susanna all her own.

Box office: 020-7304 4000. Figaro will be broadcast live on Radio 3 on July 5 at 6.30pm

Click here to find tickets for Figaro

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