"It is best when a good composer who understands the stage and is himself able to suggest something, gets together with a clever poet as a true phoenix." – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Spring of 1786 saw the opening of Le Nozze di Figaro. Viennese Court libbretist Lorenzo da Ponte masterfully reworked the original French manuscript into poetic Italian, removed political references, and replaced Figaro's climactic speech against inherited nobility with an equally angry aria against the fickleness of women plus an outburst berating his master. In Vienna the connoisseurs praised the work, the general public heckled (some historians believe the hecklers were paid to do so by Mozart's rivals), and Emperor Joseph II felt the nearly three and a half hour opera was too long, thus decreeing "…no piece for more than a single voice is to be repeated." Later that year the opera opened in Prague to such tremendous success the connoisseurs from Vienna declared the Prague performance was much better and Herr Mozart traveled to Prague to see the piece, even conducting it one night. The Marriage of Figaro is the sequel to The Barber of Seville. Taking place several years later, it recounts a single "Day of Madness" at the palace of Count Almaviva near Seville, Spain, on the day Figaro is to wed the fair Susanna. The Count employs Figaro and Susanna, and in a bullying rage he schemes to defile the maiden before the wedding. Count Almaviva keeps trying to delay the civil service, but his Countess schemes with Figaro and Susanna to both expose the Count’s malicious intent as well as to embarrass him. The Count tries to force Figaro to marry a woman old enough to be his mother…who turns out to actually be his long lost mother! In the end, love prevails. Figaro and Susanna wed, Figaro is reunited with his mama and the Count's love for his Countess is restored. Mozart and da Ponte composed this as an opera buffa (comic opera), with many hijinks comparable to an operatic slapstick. Men dressing as women, fake love letters spurning real jealousy from the wrong person, instantaneous weddings, the reunion of Figaro to the mother he never knew, and a tremendous amount of scheming occurs. The emotional highs and lows of violence and sensuality were so musically manifest in all his major operas, one scholar noted, "In all of Mozart's supreme expressions of suffering and terror, there is something shockingly voluptuous." This Opera is still performed today, and the overture is also played on its own as a concert piece.
This color coordinated collection of fashion fabrics was first featured in our Vogue Fabrics By Mail Winter 2010 catalog of swatches. Subscribe to receive home delivery of these catalogs every other month.
Spring of 1786 saw the opening of Le Nozze di Figaro. Viennese Court libbretist Lorenzo da Ponte masterfully reworked the original French manuscript into poetic Italian, removed political references, and replaced Figaro's climactic speech against inherited nobility with an equally angry aria against the fickleness of women plus an outburst berating his master. In Vienna the connoisseurs praised the work, the general public heckled (some historians believe the hecklers were paid to do so by Mozart's rivals), and Emperor Joseph II felt the nearly three and a half hour opera was too long, thus decreeing "…no piece for more than a single voice is to be repeated." Later that year the opera opened in Prague to such tremendous success the connoisseurs from Vienna declared the Prague performance was much better and Herr Mozart traveled to Prague to see the piece, even conducting it one night. The Marriage of Figaro is the sequel to The Barber of Seville. Taking place several years later, it recounts a single "Day of Madness" at the palace of Count Almaviva near Seville, Spain, on the day Figaro is to wed the fair Susanna. The Count employs Figaro and Susanna, and in a bullying rage he schemes to defile the maiden before the wedding. Count Almaviva keeps trying to delay the civil service, but his Countess schemes with Figaro and Susanna to both expose the Count’s malicious intent as well as to embarrass him. The Count tries to force Figaro to marry a woman old enough to be his mother…who turns out to actually be his long lost mother! In the end, love prevails. Figaro and Susanna wed, Figaro is reunited with his mama and the Count's love for his Countess is restored. Mozart and da Ponte composed this as an opera buffa (comic opera), with many hijinks comparable to an operatic slapstick. Men dressing as women, fake love letters spurning real jealousy from the wrong person, instantaneous weddings, the reunion of Figaro to the mother he never knew, and a tremendous amount of scheming occurs. The emotional highs and lows of violence and sensuality were so musically manifest in all his major operas, one scholar noted, "In all of Mozart's supreme expressions of suffering and terror, there is something shockingly voluptuous." This Opera is still performed today, and the overture is also played on its own as a concert piece.
This color coordinated collection of fashion fabrics was first featured in our Vogue Fabrics By Mail Winter 2010 catalog of swatches. Subscribe to receive home delivery of these catalogs every other month.
