Free to follow every thread. No paywall, no dead ends.
The Marriage of Figaro | HearLore
The Marriage of Figaro
In 1784, the Emperor Joseph II of Austria banned a play by Pierre Beaumarchais simply because it made him uncomfortable. The play, titled The Marriage of Figaro, was deemed too dangerous for public performance due to its frank treatment of class conflict and its suggestion that servants could outwit their masters. The Emperor declared that the piece contained much that was objectionable and ordered the censor to either reject it entirely or make such alterations that the censor would be responsible for the impression it might make. This political firestorm set the stage for a collaboration that would change the course of opera history. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, then a thirty-year-old composer struggling for recognition in Vienna, saw the potential in the banned play. He approached his friend and librettist, Lorenzo Da Ponte, with the idea of turning the French comedy into an Italian opera. Da Ponte, a former priest and poet, managed to secure official approval from the Emperor by stripping the play of its most inflammatory political references. He rewrote the libretto in six weeks, transforming the revolutionary spirit of the original into a story of personal fidelity and emotional depth. While the political content was suppressed, the opera enhanced the emotional content, transforming the superficial attachments of the play into real passions. The Emperor, who had initially forbidden the play, eventually approved the operatic version, unaware that he was commissioning a work that would become one of the greatest masterpieces of operatic comedy.
A Day of Madness
The opera takes place over a single day, known as a mad day, in the palace of Count Almaviva near Seville, Spain. The story begins with Figaro, the Count's personal valet, happily measuring the space where his bridal bed will fit, while his fiancée Susanna, the Countess's maid, tries on her wedding bonnet. The Count, who had previously been a romantic youth in the earlier play The Barber of Seville, has now degenerated into a scheming, bullying skirt-chaser. He is persistently trying to exercise his droit du seigneur, the feudal right of a lord to bed a servant girl on her wedding night before her husband can sleep with her. Although the Count had the right abolished when he married Rosina, he now wants to reinstate it. The Countess, Rosina, laments her husband's infidelity, while Susanna and Figaro conspire to embarrass the Count and expose his scheming. The plot thickens as the Count tries to compel Figaro legally to marry a woman old enough to be his mother, only to discover at the last minute that she is actually his mother. Through the clever manipulations of Susanna and the Countess, Figaro and Susanna are finally able to marry. The opera's complexity is heightened by the presence of Cherubino, the Count's page, who is infatuated with all women, particularly the Countess. The Count, furious at Cherubino's amorous ways, plans to punish him by sending him to the army, but the page is saved by the entrance of the peasants of the Count's estate. The day of madness culminates in a series of misunderstandings, disguises, and revelations that test the relationships between all the characters.
When was The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed?
The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on the 1st of May 1786. The first production was given eight further performances, all in 1786.
Who wrote the libretto for The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart?
Lorenzo Da Ponte wrote the libretto for The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Da Ponte rewrote the libretto in six weeks to secure official approval from the Emperor by stripping the play of its most inflammatory political references.
Where did The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart premiere?
The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna. The opera was later produced in Prague starting in December 1786 by the Pasquale Bondini company.
What instruments are used in the score for The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart?
The score for The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two clarini, timpani, and strings. Recitativi secchi are accompanied by a keyboard instrument, usually a fortepiano or a harpsichord, often joined by a cello.
Why did Emperor Joseph II initially ban The Marriage of Figaro by Pierre Beaumarchais?
Emperor Joseph II initially banned The Marriage of Figaro by Pierre Beaumarchais because it made him uncomfortable and was deemed too dangerous for public performance. The play was considered to contain frank treatment of class conflict and suggested that servants could outwit their masters.
Mozart's score for The Marriage of Figaro is a masterpiece of musical storytelling, using the orchestra to convey emotions and plot developments that the libretto alone could not express. The overture, in the key of D major, is in presto tempo and is well known and often played independently as a concert piece. The opera is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two clarini, timpani, and strings, with recitativi secchi accompanied by a keyboard instrument, usually a fortepiano or a harpsichord, often joined by a cello. Mozart uses the sound of two horns playing together to represent cuckoldry in the Act 4 aria, a device later used by Verdi in Ford's aria in Falstaff. The finale of Act 2, lasting 20 minutes, is one of the longest uninterrupted pieces of music Mozart ever wrote. Eight of the opera's 11 characters appear on stage in its more than 900 bars of continuous music. The music reflects the drama, with sections resembling sonata form, building up and resolving musical tension to provide a natural musical reflection of the drama. The opera's closing numbers eschew recitatives altogether, opting for increasingly sophisticated writing, bringing characters on stage and revelling in a complex weave of solo and ensemble singing in multiple combinations, climaxing in seven- and eight-voice tutti for Acts 2 and 4. The music is so perfect that Johannes Brahms said, In my opinion, each number in Figaro is a miracle; it is totally beyond me how anyone could create anything so perfect; nothing like it was ever done again, not even by Beethoven.
The Premiere and the Critics
The Marriage of Figaro premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on the 1st of May 1786, with a cast that included Stefano Mandini as Count Almaviva, Luisa Laschi as Countess Rosina, Nancy Storace as Susanna, and Francesco Benucci as Figaro. Mozart himself conducted the first two performances, conducting seated at the keyboard, the custom of the day. The first production was given eight further performances, all in 1786. The applause of the audience on the first night resulted in five numbers being encored, seven on the 8th of May. However, the Emperor Joseph II was concerned by the length of the performance and directed his aide to prevent the excessive duration of operas, without however prejudicing the fame often sought by opera singers from the repetition of vocal pieces. The newspaper Wiener Realzeitung carried a review of the opera in its issue of the 11th of July 1786, which alludes to interference probably produced by paid hecklers, but praises the work warmly. The public, however, did not really know on the first day where it stood. It heard many a bravo from unbiased connoisseurs, but obstreperous louts in the uppermost storey exerted their hired lungs with all their might to deafen singers and audience alike with their St! and Pst; and consequently opinions were divided at the end of the piece. Apart from that, it is true that the first performance was none of the best, owing to the difficulties of the composition. But now, after several performances, one would be subscribing either to the cabal or to tastelessness if one were to maintain that Herr Mozart's music is anything but a masterpiece of art. The Hungarian poet Ferenc Kazinczy was in the audience for a May performance, and later remembered the powerful impression the work made on him, saying that Nancy Storace, the beautiful singer, enchanted eye, ear, and soul.
The Prague Triumph
The opera was produced in Prague starting in December 1786 by the Pasquale Bondini company. This production was a tremendous success; the newspaper Prager Oberpostamtszeitung called the work a masterpiece, and said no piece (for everyone here asserts) has ever caused such a sensation. Local music lovers paid for Mozart to visit Prague and hear the production; he listened on the 17th of January 1787, and conducted it himself on the 22nd. The success of the Prague production led to the commissioning of the next Mozart/Da Ponte opera, Don Giovanni, premiered in Prague in 1787. The work was not performed in Vienna during 1787 or 1788, but starting in 1789 there was a revival production. For this occasion Mozart replaced both arias of Susanna with new compositions, better suited to the voice of Adriana Ferrarese del Bene who took the role. To replace Venite, inginocchiatevi he wrote Un moto di gioia, and to replace Deh vieni non tardar he wrote Al desio di chi t'adora, probably in mid-1790. The opera's success in Prague demonstrated its universal appeal and cemented its place in the operatic repertoire. The Emperor's initial concerns about the play's political content were overshadowed by the public's enthusiasm for the music and the story. The opera's themes of fidelity, class conflict, and the triumph of the underdog resonated with audiences across Europe, making it a cornerstone of the repertoire.
The Legacy of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro is considered one of the greatest operas ever written, a cornerstone of the repertoire, and appears consistently among the top ten in the Operabase list of most frequently performed operas. In 2017, BBC News Magazine asked 172 opera singers to vote for the best operas ever written. The Marriage of Figaro came in first out of the 20 operas featured, with the magazine describing it as being one of the supreme masterpieces of operatic comedy, whose rich sense of humanity shines out of Mozart's miraculous score. The opera's influence extends beyond the stage, with Mozart reusing melodies from Figaro in his other operas, including Così fan tutte and Don Giovanni. Beethoven wrote a set of variations for violin and piano on Figaro's cavatina, and Ferdinand Ries used music from the opera in his piano sonata. The opera's impact on the development of music drama is profound, with Charles Rosen noting that the synthesis of accelerating complexity and symmetrical resolution which was at the heart of Mozart's style enabled him to find a musical equivalent for the great stage works which were his dramatic models. The Marriage of Figaro in Mozart's version is the dramatic equal, and in many respects, the superior, of Beaumarchais's work. The opera's enduring popularity is a testament to its ability to convey complex human emotions and social commentary through the power of music.