'It's such a big event' - baritone Edward Jowle on starring in Scottish Opera's The Marriage of Figaro
How does Scottish Opera Emerging Artist Edward Jowle feel about taking on the role of Figaro for the first time? ‘It’s fun to play a grotesque,’ he tells David Kettle, ‘and even more fun to play someone who’s emotionally real and behaves badly’
“At the first rehearsal, I thought I was going to liquify on the spot from the pressure and the excitement.” It’s understandable that young Derbyshire baritone Edward Jowle is – well, just a little euphoric. “I was such a monstrous ball of hormones and fear and excitement at the rehearsal because this is such a big event.” Singing your very first Figaro – in Mozart’s iconic opera The Marriage of Figaro – is a big event indeed. Especially when a few years back, learning some of the wily steward’s role represented Jowle’s first introduction to the world of opera as a 14-year-old. “So I’ve been fantasising about this moment for more than half my life.”
Figaro novice or not, audiences should be in extremely safe hands with Jowle in the opera’s title role. As one of Scottish Opera’s current Emerging Artists, he’s demonstrated rare comic abilities and a powerful but focused voice in a number of roles already, among them Don Iñigo in Ravel’s L’heure espagnole and Schaunard in Puccini’s La bohème.
At the other end of the Figaro-experience spectrum, however, is legendary baritone-turned-director Sir Thomas Allen, who returns to lead the second revival of his own production, with the inescapable advantage of having sung Figaro countless times since his debut in 1969. “But new things keep on cropping up with a piece like this,” he explains. “You think you know it inside out, but if you keep an open mind, it’s an opera you can explore until the cows come home.”
Allen’s Marriage of Figaro for Scottish Opera was first unveiled in 2010, with an initial revival in 2016. A decade later, however, there’s a new twist: for 2026, Mozart and librettist Lorenzo da Ponte’s Italian-language original is being sung in English, in a well-established translation by writer Amanda Holden. “I actually first learnt the piece in English and then went into Italian, while most singers do it the other way round,” remembers Allen. “But we mustn’t underestimate the strength of the English text. When you’re dealing with a language you know inside out, suddenly you have the luxury of being able to play with words in a way you can only do in other languages if you’re extremely skilled.”
Play, in fact, is a key idea behind Allen and Jowle’s perspectives on the opera, and one that Jowle returns to. “In English, we’re all able to play to a much greater extent, especially in the rehearsal room. Often we’re thinking about the reaction we want to elicit from an audience – that’s probably a laugh in a comedy – but it’s also about how we get there as part of a longer process.”
With its disguises, deceptions and mistaken identities, not to mention its merciless prodding at the foibles of human desire and power, The Marriage of Figaro is indeed a very funny opera, as servants get the upper hand over their supposed masters. But like any good comedy, it also packs a punch, picking at themes that Allen’s production doesn’t ignore, as Jowle explains. “You’re basically watching people struggle – nobody’s having a good day. And the particulars of that – fidelity, desire, class struggle – will always have something to say to people who live on this mess of an island.”
“It’s about a class-ridden society,” Allen says, “and how everybody deals with that. And the truth of it is that something happens in this opera, between the two classes of society, as a result of which the world changes. The whole master-servant relationship is kicked out of the window.”
Allen’s production remains faithful to the period in which Mozart was writing the piece – which, Jowle feels, ironically makes the opera’s themes all the more relevant to today. “By putting it in the 18th century, we’re able to lean into the notion of revolution, which is absolutely part of the piece. For me, that’s the most satisfying thing – there are issues of the head here as well as issues of the heart.”
For Allen, the opera’s ideas are eternal – perhaps a sad reflection of our apparent lack of progress across more than two centuries. “But I think we go back to The Marriage of Figaro and admire it for that reason. As far as things stand at the moment, and as far as where the world seems to be going, it still has messages for us – messages that are relevant at any stage of life, any period of history.”
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Indeed, for all its dazzling humour, The Marriage of Figaro has its fair share of darkness – in the Count’s threat to use his power to bed Figaro’s intended Susanna on her wedding night, for example, or in Figaro’s own barbed reactions to his intended. “He can be a bit of an arsehole,” says Jowle. “But it’s fun to play a grotesque – and even more fun to play someone who’s emotionally real and behaves badly, as we all do.”
It’s hardly surprising that Jowle is thinking in terms of Figaro’s motivations and inner world. He’s shown himself as particularly adept at conveying character in the several roles he’s taken already as an Emerging Artist, a scheme that supports and nurtures early-career performers through performance opportunities and behind-the-scenes activities. “There’s a real sense of pedagogy in what we’re given to do,” Jowle explains, “but also the sense that we can take risks. That’s the only space in which you can actually grow.”
How does he feel about stepping into a central role in a production that’s already well established? Is it simply a case of inhabiting a role that’s already been created? Not a bit of it, he says. “We’re a fresh group of people, and none of us have been part of this production before – though we’re in an ideal situation where we’re working within a tried and tested formula.”
Allen agrees. The basic framework of his Marriage of Figaro might be in place, but he’s working from scratch with his new singers. “You can’t impose on a fresh cast what you did the first time around, because it’s all to do with personal interactions and chemistry. And we’ve got a very vital cast. I’d be very silly if I didn’t recognise the talents they all bring. I’m urging them to look deep inside themselves and find their child – to play, behave badly, or whatever it takes. You need to hold on to a child’s imagination if you’re going to have a career in this world – not a childish imagination, but the richness of imagination that a child has.”
The Marriage of Figaro is at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow, from 9-23 May, with further performances in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness. This feature was produced in association with Scottish Opera.
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