#nozzedifigaro

[aesthetikon-rc]

Celebrated the festive season in Zurich with the timeless elegance of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro.

[davidsereroopera]

Ready to start Figaro!!! I’m excited as a kid when I’m about to go on stage..making dreams come true everyday @davidserero @centerforjewishhistory @officialamericansephardifeder #figaro #nozzedifigaro #marriageoffigaro #davidserero #serero #operasinger (à Center for Jewish History) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0NOdidhvQd/?igshid=qn90i32f2ph7

[davidsereroopera]

Proud to share my next production: The Marriage of Figaro (Nozze di Figaro by Mozart) that I’m adapted and performing the title role of Figaro with an amazing cast! Premiere adaptation! Tix: asffigaro.bpt.me @davidserero @centerforjewishhistory @officialamericansephardifeder @opera.news @operawire @metopera #opera #operasinger #figaro #marriageoffigaro #nozzedifigaro #mozart #baritone #davidserero #offbroadway (à New York, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/BzMqpk-h6SL/?igshid=oi3ytfvyzgrv

[amicafrizzi]

Cecilia Bartoli - Voi Che Sapete (Le nozze di Figaro - Mozart)

Cecilia Bartoli - Voi Che Sapete (Le nozze di Figaro - Mozart)

"Ricerco un bene

fuori di me”.

[vocaldrums]

Esto no para! #bassbaritone #operasinger #berlinoperaacademy #nozzedifigaro #bartolo (en Berlin, Germany)

[feline-strange]

My little stage. #nozzedifigaro #whoswho #guess #firstrehearsalcomingup

[nakedorchestra]

Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro/The Marriage of Figaro Opera Walkthrough: Act II

Act II picks up with an incredibly sad and beautiful aria which is something Mozart does so well. The Countess appears and gives us a peek into her misery, asking love to return her husband. Here’s Dame Kiri Te Kanawa singing a beautiful version.

Susanna appears and attempts to cheer her up while they talk about what a creep her husband is. The Countess gets a pretty nasty man-zinger in there saying

“This is how modern husbands are: unfaithful on principle, fickle by nature and all jealous out of pride.”

(Come lo sono i moderni mariti: per sistema infedeli, per genio capricciosi, e per orgoglio poi tutti gelosi.) 

Figaro comes in and they begin to scheme up a very complicated scheme to keep the count busy until he and Susanna can have their wedding. He’s already sent an anonymous letter to the count warning him that his wife is cheating on him that evening so he’ll spend all his time trying to figure out who the fellow is. Also they’re going to dress Cherubino up as a girl and try to get the count to hook up with him so they can expose him.

Sure. Sounds simple enough. 

So anyway he sends Cherubino in. You could cut the sexual tension between Cherubino and the Countess with a knife and poor ole’ Susanna is third wheeling/chaperoning along. She encourages Cherubino to sing one of his songs for the Countess. He’s very nervous and you can hear that the aria starts out very simply both harmonically and rhythmically and gains complexity as Cherubino gains confidence. This aria is also diegetic music to the opera, and so Susanna is supposed to be accompanying him on the guitar so you can hear the arpeggiated bass line is meant to imitate a guitar. Here is an amazing version sung by my imaginary girlfriend Kate Lindsey, from a modern setting of the opera (note Susanna teaching him Elvis moves at the beginning). Subs if you speak French or a quick translation here

Then begin the cross-dressing Cherubino shenanigans. Everyone gets very giggly as they undress the hot young guy. Somewhere in the undressing, they notice that Cherubino’s military commission is missing its official seal. Susanna sings an aria (Venite inginocchiatevi)  goes out to grab something leaving the Countess and Cherubino ALONE. SCANDAL.

Except  that the Count has received that letter about his adulterous wife and has come to confront her. Cherubino hides in the closet, and the Countess proves herself to be a terrible liar, trying to say that Susanna is in the closet trying on her wedding dress but...just...CAN’T...come out. As they’re arguing about this, Susanna actually does reenter the room and tries to figure out what the hell is happening. The Count decides to go get tools to open the closet door himself, and to ensure that whoever is hiding can’t escape he’s bringing the countess with him and locking the damn door.

Well damn. Now Susanna and Cherubino are both locked in the room where they are going to freak out in a whirlwind of a duet where Cherubino decides to jump out of the window despite Susanna’s protestations. Here’s Diana Damrau (Susanna) and Monica Bacelli (Cherubino)

Susanna then hides in the closet and the Count and Countess return and just as they’re about to get the closet door open, the Countess spills the beans and confesses Cherubino is the one in the closet. Enraged the Count throws open the door to reveal...Susanna.

Everyone is confused and Susanna is having the time of her life. She sings a little minuet as she exits, showing us that it’s not just Figaro who gets to make the Count dance. This is Mozart’s very long and truly masterful finale. It’s about 25 minutes of continuous ensemble music and continuous scheming and upheaval. I could try to summarize it and it would take a small novel, or you could just watch it from the 2012 Glyndebourne production set in 1960’s Spain (which I LOVE). Settle in cuz...

[nakedorchestra]

Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro/The Marriage of Figaro Opera Walkthrough: Act I

ACT I

This opera starts with a total whirlwind of an overture. It starts with a little whisper, a buzz in the halls which slowly picks up some speed until BAM the entire orchestra joins in. There are so many lines which one instrument begins and another one picks up the melody line and chases after it. It contrasts very noble and lofty lines (such as the bass line at 1:10) with sweet and simple lines (like the melody at 1:28) already setting up the Upstairs/Downstairs world that The Marriage of Figaro inhabits.

Look how much fun Gerard Korsten has conducting it!

And tada! It’s Spain! In roughly the 1780’s (unless the production chose to set it somewhere else…). It’s Figaro and Susanna’s wedding day!

Figaro is a valet to the Count and is hard at work measuring out a space in a room within the palace. Susanna, the countess’s maid, joins in this opening duet when she enters with her new cappelino (a little hat/veil type contraption) for their wedding. At first Figaro ignores her and continues working until eventually she not only garners his attention but makes him join in her melody, giving us a strong hint about who wears the pants in this relationship.

He tells her he’s measuring out the space for their wedding bed. She becomes horrified realizing that this is the room they will inhabit once they’re married. Figaro is totally confused because this is the best [servant’s] room in the house and they can easily run to their respective master/mistress’s chambers. Susanna is reluctant at first to tell Figaro because “I am Susanna and you are an idiot” (MEN amirite?)

But  she eventually clues him in that the Count is planning to send him off to London, and meanwhile sneak over to Susanna and bring back prima nocte.

Figaro then sings his aria “Se vuol ballare”. Here’s Christian Van Horn doing it great service.

He begins telling us that if “Lil’ master count” (signor contino) would like to dance, it is Figaro who will set the tune, and he does so in a minuet, which is generally a noble’s dance, but when he breaks into the second half, he tells us he plans to overturn all the Count’s deceit, we hear a contredanse which is an English country dance more fitting to a servant. THANKS MOZART. THAT’S VERY CLEVER. Also something that 1780s audiences would have picked up on, so welcome to the inside joke!

Then the baddies come out. Bartolo and Marcellina who are both old, uncute and not fun pop out to patter about their plans to legally blackmail Figaro into marrying Marcellina to repay a debt he owes her. Bartolo sings a #tbt aria which mostly concerns his sputtering rage about things that happened in The Barber of Seville. It’s fine. Marcellina overhears Susanna come in and pretends not to hear her so she can say some nasty stuff. A war of politeness ensues as each delivers calls the other a ho but, you know, POLITELY. This is a palace after all.

Cherubino enters and sings about how damn horny he is and when it’s done right it is such a great portrayal of what it is to be a teenager. The accompaniment is seriously muted and relies heavily on offbeats and sudden swells that perfectly depict the electricity and sudden heartstops that come with crushin’ HARD

(especially when you’re crushin hard on your godmother the countess…)

Here’s Frederica von Stade wearing a crazy wig and rockin’ this aria

Bear with me here as I try to explain a farce plot…

The count comes in as Susanna frantically hides Cherubino behind a chair..

...where he overhears the Count making unrequited moves on Susanna until the Count’s slimy friend Basilio appears. Now the Count also hides for PROPRIETY dontcha know, but he goes to hide behind a chair so Cherubino now jumps into the chair where Susanna covers him with laundry. Basilio begins to gossip and the Count jumps out upon hearing that Cherubino may be interested in the countess and...you know what just watch the video….

Figaro arrives with a whole damn chorus of townspeople to try and trap the Count into marrying him and Susanna right then in an impressive flashmob cock-block. The Count tells everyone he just wants to give them a REALLY nice party so they’ll have to delay it till that night. Then he dooms our fancy friend Cherubino to a life in the military, starting that day. Figaro mocks him and his beautiful curls and fanciful feather hats, sung to a brisk and jolly march with little fanfares rising out of the orchestra and that’s the end of act one kids.