SUBSTANCE BEATS STYLE IN 'FIGARO'.

Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor

THE LIST OF timeless artworks may not be growing these days, but no matter. We already have enough to engage us. Or so listening to Mozart's ``Marriage of Figaro'' suggested on Saturday night.

The occasion was opening night of a new Los Angeles Opera production of the work. Directed by Ian Judge and designed by Tim Goodchild, it takes the place of Peter Hall's version, which was both well-liked and straightforward, albeit a bit unspontaneous after several revivals. But the exchange has not worked in our favor.

No, playwright Beaumarchais' savvy barber-cum-valet and his bride-to-be don't now work for modern American plutocrats (see Peter Sellars), nor do they reside in a pile reminiscent of Poe's House of Usher (see Jonathan Miller).

There is, though, something decidedly Eurotrashy about Goodchild's outsized palace rooms, with their super-rich colors and anachronistic modern-day accouterments, like telephones and glossy magazines. And one can't ignore Deirdre Clancy's bizarrely matched costumes, each seemingly plucked from a different theatrical road company. Why, you may ask, are the count's soldiers dressed like chauffeurs, circa 1920?

More serious are the lapses Judge makes regarding 18th-century manners. Seeing Figaro kiss the hand of his master's wife, to say nothing of watching the page Cherubino smooch with her, subverts what Mozart and his librettist Lorenzo da Ponte intended. Without class boundaries, Figaro and his cohorts risk nothing - and sacrifice is central to this opera.

Still, one goes to ``Figaro'' primarily for the music, not the visuals, or even always the morals. And musically this production is strong. Though no one in the cast is famous, several singers no doubt will be. Topping the list is Figaro himself as personified by Uruguayan bass-baritone Erwin Schrott.

Schrott won great acclaim here last season as a sexily resonant Don Giovanni. And it's no surprise that the company signed him to this role. To be convincing, Figaro must be clever and charming. It's no bad thing if he's a lady-killer, too. And Schrott certainly is that. He swaggers across the stage with enviable self-confidence. How nice that he has a voice to match - deep and robust, but with a captivating, bright edge.

This vigorous Figaro is paired with a Susanna of commensurate gifts, soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian, a Canadian born to Armenian parents in Beirut. Though making her L.A. Opera debut with this role, Bayrakdarian already has appeared at two company galas and won Placido Domingo's Operalia competition in 2000. Pretty and vivacious, she looks like an ideal Susanna; more important, she sings like one, with a glimmering, even tone. Her wise and cheeky performance proved a joy from beginning to end, but never more so than in her final aria, when she was also ineffably touching.

Susanna's noble counterpart, the Countess, is sung by Bulgarian soprano Darina Takova. If Bayrakdarian sounds like topaz, then Takova's voice is amber. In the Countess' two great arias - ``Porgi amor,'' about love lost, and ``Dove sono,'' about its possible reclamation - Takova sang ardently, though she got more expressive as the opera progressed.

American bass David Pittsinger's Count Almaviva, no slouch himself in the testosterone department, rounds out the central quartet. His gripping account of the great vengeance aria ``Vedro mentr'io sospiro'' seethed with wounded pride, and he made a convincing foil for Figaro at every turn.

With two beloved arias, the trouser role of Cherubino has always been plum for mezzo-sopranos, and Boston native Sandra Piques Eddy assumes it enthusiastically, singing well and offering a particularly convincing portrait of a young man on hormonal red alert. No less fine were Anna Steiger as a robustly scheming Marcellina and company regulars Michael Gallup, as blustering but somehow amiable Dr. Bartolo, and Greg Fedderly, as an unctuous, stuttering Don Basilio.

In the pit, Stefan Anton Reck, in his company debut, made a fine first impression, leading Mozart's effervescent score with ample enthusiasm and enough sensitivity to avoid overpowering the singers, which his broad gestures certainly suggested he might do.

MARRIAGE OF FIGARO - Three and one half stars

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

When: 7:30 tonight, June 2, 5, 11, 16 and 19; 2 p.m. Saturday and June 13.

Tickets: $25 to $170. [phone] or www.losangeles.opera.com.

In a nutshell: An overstylized new production hinders Mozart's opera, but beguiling singing carries the day.

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Bass-baritone Erwin Schrott and soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian bring plenty of sizzle, along with great voices, to L.A. Opera's ``Marriage of Figaro.''