The Metropolitan Opera Presents: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro: Libretto, Background and Photos

By Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte

Today Mozart's exquisite Le Nozze di Figaro delights and moves audiences everywhere, long after its 1786 birth into tumultuous times. The original Beaumarchais play raised a firestorm in France, then on the brink of revolution, with its dangerous commentary on class relations. However, Lorenzo Da Ponte carefully omitted anything political from his opera libretto; what remained, when joined with Mozart's sublime and penetrating music, was a witty yet profound tale of infatuation, heartache, scheming, and tenderness, where complex emotions are laid bare and everyone, regardless of class, is equally vulnerable to the powers of love. Figaro continues the story of The Barber of Seville several years later, in a single “day of madness.” Count Almaviva's love, Rosina, is now his long-suffering countess, and the barber Figaro, now the count's valet, is about to marry Susanna, the countess's maid. But the couple-to-be must first deal with two obstacles: a demand that Figaro pay his debt to an older woman or marry her instead, and the count's determination to bed Susanna on her wedding night. Suspicions fly, plots are hatched, narrow escapes abound, and connivers receive their due. Love and forgiveness finally bring order to the craziness, and a day filled with torment and worry ends in joy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: RowmanLittlefield
• Release date: Aug 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781574674699

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 The Metropolitan Opera

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, without written permission, except by a newspaper or magazine reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review.

Published in 2014 by Amadeus Press

An Imprint of Hal Leonard Corporation

7777 West Bluemound Road

Milwaukee, WI 53213

Trade Book Division Editorial Offices

33 Plymouth St., Montclair, NJ 07042

English translation of libretto copyright © 1998 by Leyerle Publications, 28 Stanley Street, Mt. Morris, New York 14510. English translation by Nico Castel. Originally published by Leyerle Publications as part of The Libretti of Mozart’s Completed Operas, in two volumes. These publications, and others in the Leyerle Opera Libretti series, are available directly from Leyerle’s website at www.leyerlepublications.com.

Printed in the United States of America

Book design by Mark Lerner

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

www.amadeuspress.com

Contents

Introduction

Synopsis

In Focus by William Berger

Program Note by Andrew Porter

LE NOZZE DI FIGARO

Notes by Nico Castel

Photographs

Introduction

With its sublime mix of humor, pathos, and deep humanity, Le Nozze di Figaro has been one of Mozart’s most popular works since it first saw the stage in 1786, and it remains a high-water mark of opera itself to this day. Figaro had its Met premiere in 1894, with some of the biggest stars of the day in the leading roles, and it has attracted many great Met artists ever since, from Gustav Mahler, who conducted a new production in 1909, to celebrated interpreters of the title role such as Ezio Pinza, Cesare Siepi, or in more recent years, Bryn Terfel and Ildar Abdrazakov. It is also a signature work of Met Music Director James Levine, who has led more than 65 performances since 1985. The first collaboration of Mozart and librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte (they would later go on to create Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte), Figaro stands as one of the great human comedies in the repertoire, and many of its melodies have long transcended their operatic origins and become a part of our collective musical consciousness.

Like the previous volumes of the Metropolitan Opera Presents series, this book is designed to give readers an in-depth introduction to this timeless masterwork. In addition to the complete libretto in Italian and English, we have included a synopsis, a detailed program note with historical background, and the In Focus feature we provide in the Met’s house program every night—a brief summary of key aspects of the opera. We have also featured a wealth of archival photos from Le Nozze di Figaro’s 120-year history at the Met. Whether you experience Figaro in the opera house, as part of our Live in HD movie-theater transmissions or radio broadcasts, or as a web stream, we hope this book will give you all the information you need to enjoy and appreciate one of opera’s most beloved works.

To learn more about Met productions, Live in HD movie-theater transmissions, Met membership, and more, visit metopera.org.

Ezio Pinza as Figaro and Bidú Sayão as Susanna, 1940

Metropolitan Opera Archives

Synopsis

Act I

Count Almaviva’s estate near Seville, 18th century. Figaro and Susanna, servants to the Count and Countess Almaviva, are preparing for their wedding. Figaro is furious when his bride tells him that the Count has made advances toward her and vows to outwit his master. The scheming Dr. Bartolo appears with his housekeeper, Marcellina, who wants Figaro to marry her as a way to cancel a debt he cannot pay. When she runs into Susanna, the two women trade insults. The page, Cherubino, enters and, finding Susanna alone, tells her that he is in love with each and every woman in the house. He hides when the Count—who is angry because he caught Cherubino flirting with Barbarina, the gardener’s daughter, earlier—shows up. The Count again pursues Susanna, but conceals himself when the music master, Basilio, approaches. When Basilio tells Susanna that Cherubino has a crush on the Countess, the Count furiously steps forward. He becomes further enraged when he discovers the page in the room. Figaro returns with a group of peasants who praise the Count’s progressive reform in renouncing the traditional right of a nobleman to take the place of a manservant on his wedding night. The Count orders Cherubino to join his regiment in Seville and leaves Figaro to cheer up the unhappy boy.

Act II

The Countess laments that her husband no longer loves her. Encouraged by Figaro and Susanna, she agrees to set a trap for him: they will send Cherubino, disguised as Susanna, to a rendezvous with the Count. The two women begin to dress Cherubino in girls’ clothes. When Susanna goes off to find a ribbon, the Count knocks and is annoyed to find the door locked. Cherubino hides in the closet. The Countess admits her husband, who, when he hears a noise, is skeptical of her story that Susanna is inside the closet. Taking his wife with him, he leaves to get tools to force the door. Meanwhile, Susanna, who has reentered unseen and observed everything, helps Cherubino escape through the window before taking his place in the closet. When the Count and Countess return, both are stunned to find Susanna inside. All seems well until the gardener, Antonio, appears, complaining that someone has jumped from the window, ruining his flowers. Figaro, who has rushed in to announce that everything is ready for the wedding, pretends that it was he who jumped, and fakes a sprained ankle. Bartolo, Marcellina, and Basilio appear, waving a court summons for Figaro. Delighted, the Count declares the wedding postponed.

Act III

Susanna leads the Count on with promises of a rendezvous, but he grows doubtful when he overhears her conspiring with Figaro and declares he will have revenge. The Countess recalls her past happiness. Marcellina demands that Figaro pay his debt or marry her at once. But noticing a birthmark on his arm, she is astonished to discover that he is her long-lost son, fathered by Bartolo. The joyful parents agree to marry as well. Susanna and the Countess continue their conspiracy against the Count and compose a letter to him confirming the rendezvous with Susanna that evening in the garden. Later, during Figaro and Susanna’s wedding ceremony, the bride slips the letter to the Count.

Act IV

In the garden, Barbarina tells Figaro and Marcellina about the planned rendezvous between the Count and Susanna. Thinking that his bride is unfaithful, Figaro rages against all women. As he leaves, he just misses Susanna and the Countess, dressed for their masquerade in each other’s clothes. Alone, Susanna sings a love song while Figaro, hidden nearby, thinks she is speaking to the Count. Susanna conceals herself in time to see Cherubino declare his love to the disguised Countess—until the Count chases him away to be alone with Susanna. Soon Figaro understands what is going on and, joining in the fun, makes exaggerated advances toward Susanna in her Countess disguise. The Count returns, finding Figaro with his wife, or so he thinks. Outraged, he calls everyone to witness his verdict. At that moment, the real Countess reveals her identity. Realizing the truth, the Count asks for his wife’s forgiveness. The couples are reunited, and so ends this mad day.

Program for Figaro’s Met premiere on January 31, 1894

Metropolitan Opera Archives

In Focus

William Berger

Premiere: Burgtheater, Vienna; May 1, 1786

A profoundly humane comedy, Le Nozze di Figaro is a remarkable marriage of Mozart’s music at the height of his genius and what might the best libretto ever set. In adapting a play that caused a scandal with its revolutionary take on 18th-century society, librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte focused less on the original topical references and more on the timeless issues embedded in the frothy drawing-room comedy. The music is elegant, with a constant tension among the social classes and between the sexes, where each character has something to gain and something to hide. Following its successful Viennese premiere, Figaro became a major hit when it was produced in Prague a few months later—a triumph for Mozart that led to the commission to write Don Giovanni.

The Creators

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) was the son of a Salzburg court musician and composer, Leopold, who was also his principal teacher and exhibited him as a musical prodigy throughout Europe. His works continue to enthrall audiences around the world, and his achievements in opera, in terms of beauty, vocal challenge, and dramatic insight, remain unsurpassed. The extraordinary Lorenzo Da Ponte (1749–1838) led an adventurous life in Venice and Vienna. He converted from Judaism as a youth and joined the Catholic Church, where he took Holy Orders. He supplied libretti for the prominent composers of his time, including Antonio Salieri, and collaborated with Mozart on Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte. Da Ponte migrated to America and eventually settled in New York, where he was granted the first Chair of Italian at Columbia College (now University), and where he was instrumental in developing an audience for Italian opera. Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (1732–1799) was the author of the three subversive Figaro plays, of which Le Barbier de Séville (1775) was the first and Le Mariage de Figaro (1778) the second. Beaumarchais’s life included roles in both the American and French Revolutions, and his character Figaro, the wily servant who consistently outsmarts his masters, bears autobiographical markings. The sound of the name itself seems to point to the author: fils (son of) Caron.

The Setting

Seville, the setting of Figaro’s prequel, The Barber of Seville, was famous in Mozart’s time as a place filled with hot-blooded young men and exotically beautiful women sequestered behind latticed windows, or jalousies (which gives us our English word jealousy). The city was the birthplace of the Don Juan legends, which Mozart and Da Ponte would mine for their subsequent masterpiece, Don Giovanni.

The Music

Figaro’s amazing score mirrors the complex world it depicts. The first impression is one of tremendous beauty and elegance; dig a little deeper and you’ll find all the underlying pain and deception. The showpiece arias for the various women (Porgi, Amor for the Countess and Cherubino’s Voi, che sapete in Act II, the Countess’s haunting Dove sono in Act III, and Susanna’s Deh, vieni, non tardar in Act IV) reflect the depth of the drama. Each of these arias is superb, delicate, and ravishingly beautiful. Other unforgettable solos in the score include Figaro’s two notable arias, the angry Act IV diatribe against womankind, Aprite un po’ quegli occhi, and Act I’s Non più andrai, in which not even the most buoyant and memorable melody in the world can quite hide the character’s sarcasm. Much of the subtext is conveyed by the orchestra, which often expresses unspoken thoughts and motivations of the characters. A good example of this is the wedding march in Act III—formal, stately, and elegant, yet with little quivering trills in the middle of the phrases that suggest something is amiss at this wedding.

Le Nozze di Figaro at the Met

The opera premiered at the Met in 1894 with a magnificent cast headed by the American sopranos Emma Eames and Lillian Nordica and with Édouard de Reszke as the Count. It was given a new production in 1909, conducted by Gustav Mahler, in which Geraldine Farrar sang the trouser role of Cherubino. The opera disappeared after the 1917 season until a new production opened in 1940 with Ettore Panizza conducting Ezio Pinza, Elisabeth Rethberg, Bidú Sayão, and Risë Stevens. The ensemble nature of the piece and the appeal of each of the leading roles have made the subsequent rosters of Figaro at the Met an impressive collection of the world’s finest singers. Some of the more frequent and most memorable performers in this opera include Jarmila Novotná as Cherubino (1940–1950), John Brownlee as the Count (1940–1952), Salvatore Baccaloni as Bartolo (1940–1958), Eleanor Steber as the Countess (1942–1956), Mildred Miller as Cherubino (1951–1962), Cesare Siepi as Figaro (1951–1972), Lisa Della Casa