`MARRIAGE' SOLID, DESPITE A FEW HITCHES.

Byline: David Mermelstein Correspondent

It's a commonplace that Mozart's ``Le Nozze di Figaro'' - ``The Marriage of Figaro'' - is an opera so evergreen you can hear it countless times and never tire of it. But why must the Los Angeles Opera put this maxim to the test by remounting Ian Judge's staging of it less than two years after that production had its premiere here? Stranger still, why did Kent Nagano, the company's outgoing music director - he starts a similar job in Munich this fall - decide to end his tenure in L.A. with something so familiar? Certainly, he didn't spend much time savoring this score's many charms on opening night last Saturday, conducting it at a swift, though by no means careless, pace. Indeed, his speeds offered a showcase for the increasingly virtuosic members of the company's orchestra, an ensemble whose refinement may well be the greatest legacy of his too-short tenure in L.A. - with stints as principal conductor from 2001 and music director from 2003.

This run also marks the L.A. Opera debut of the glorious and perpetually underrated American soprano Barbara Bonney. Some might think it odd that she should make her first appearance here as Susanna. After all, the saucy maid betrothed to the opera's eponymous protagonist isn't exactly her metier - her patrician good looks and especially her manner suggest she'd make an ideal Countess, the opera's other female lead. Yet Bonney did not disappoint, though in truth it must be noted that her voice was not large enough to fill the cavernous Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Still, she sang prettily and believably, and never seemed unhinged by some of the grosser aspects of Judge's staging, which was something of a mixed blessing.

When this production was first mounted, it was compared unfavorably to the sober and sensible Peter Hall staging that preceded it. To his credit, Judge has eliminated much of the confusion that marred the debut - yes, there are still anachronisms aplenty (what's up with the telephone?), but at least the characters' various and complex relationships now make more sense. Unfortunately, Judge has coarsened much of the stage business, adding crotch and bosom grabs and similarly obvious gestures. Alas, Tim Goodchild's ugly sets and Deirdre Clancy's mismatched costumes are no sightlier than before.

As for the rest of the singing, it's all very solid, though hardly ravishing or profoundly moving. As Figaro, Russian bass-baritone Ildar Abdrazakov cut a fine figure, in the Bryn Terfel mode. Though he lacked Terfel's signature charisma and timbre, he was never less than charming and robust.

Canadian soprano Adrianne Pieczonka offered a heartfelt and warmly sung Countess, and English mezzo-soprano Lucy Schaufer brought those qualities and ample spunk to the trouser role of Cherubino.

Among the singers returning to the production, American bass David Pittsinger seemed less involved as the Count this time around, more sweetly menacing than a real threat. But the trio of mezzo-soprano Anna Steiger (as Marcellina), bass Michael Gallop (Doctor Bartolo) and tenor Greg Fedderly (Don Basilio) proved even better than before, full of comic invention and real personality, as well as singing full of character. Fedderly, in particular, offered a richly memorable portrayal.

THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO - Two and one half stars

What:Ian Judge's production of the classic returns to L.A. Opera.

Where: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 12 and 15; 2 p.m. and April 9.

Tickets: $30 to $205. [phone] or www.losangelesopera.com.

In a nutshell: A solid if uninspiring staging of Mozart's timeless opera of love lost and regained.

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Soprano Barbara Bonney makes her L.A. Opera debut in the role of Susanna.