Recommended for Grades 6-12
In this resource, you will:
- Learn the opera’s background and synopsis
- Meet the opera’s composer
The Marriage of Figaro
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
The Marriage of Figaro
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
A quick overview of Mozart’s 1786 comic opera.
Background
In 1785, Mozart composed what is often called the perfect opera.
According to the librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte (1749-1838), it was Da Ponte who convinced Emperor Joseph II to allow Mozart to compose an Italian opera based on the scandalous second play in Pierre-Augustin Beaumarchais’ Figaro trilogy.
It is more likely, however, that the sensation surrounding the play’s recent ban in France and Vienna (1784) and the incredible success of Paisiello’s opera The Barber of Seville (1783) intrigued Mozart, leading him to Beaumarchais’ work and the original concept for the opera.
Whatever the origin, after compromises were made regarding offensive political and sexual material from the original play, Joseph II permitted the opera’s creation. Mozart composed The Marriage of Figaro in six weeks, and its Vienna premiere was met with positive, if not ecstatic, acclaim.
On the strength of Figaro, Mozart and da Ponte were commissioned to compose Don Giovanni (1787) and Così fan tutte (1790), the trilogy of operas which guaranteed Mozart’s reputation as the most significant opera composer of the 18th century.
Figaro is commonly recognized as the first comic opera which infused the opera buffa form with true emotional poignancy. With an eloquence and economy of musical gesture, Mozart transformed the stereotypes of opera buffa and commedia dell’arte into an opera full of complex and realistic characters.
Figaro was the first comic opera that sincerely humanized the farce and allowed audiences to relate to the characters on stage. It is this sense of honest connection which has made Figaro the most frequently performed opera in the world.
Synopsis
Act I
Count Almaviva’s servants, Figaro and Susanna, prepare for their wedding. Figaro finds their new quarters—between the Count and Countess’ rooms—convenient, but Susanna fears that the Count will continue to make advances toward her. Meanwhile, Bartolo plots against Figaro for having helped the Count win the hand of his former ward, now the Countess. He is abetted by his housekeeper Marcellina, who hopes to force Figaro to marry her in acquittal of a loan he cannot repay.
When the Count discovers that the pageboy Cherubino has overheard him flirting with Susanna, the Count postpones Figaro’s wedding and assigns Cherubino to a distant military post.
The Countess has decided to help Figaro and Susanna, hoping also to win back her wayward husband’s affections. Figaro outlines a plot to embarrass his master by arranging a tryst in the garden between Susanna and the Count, except Cherubino will take Susanna’s place. When Susanna leaves to alter the dress Cherubino will wear, the Count’s voice is heard outside the door. As Cherubino hides in the closet, the Countess nervously admits her husband. Hearing a noise from the closet, the Count demands to know who is inside. When the Count angrily leaves to fetch a crowbar to force the closet door open, Susanna helps Cherubino escape through the window and takes his place in the closet.
As the young people beg the Count to allow the wedding to proceed, Marcellina, Bartolo and Basilio burst in and appeal to the Count to adjudicate Marcellina’s lawsuit against Figaro. The encounter ends in a stalemate and confusion.
Act II
Without alerting Figaro, Susanna and the Countess devise a variation on his plot against his master. Susanna promises the Count a rendezvous, but the Countess, disguised in her maid’s clothes, will meet him there.
Don Curzio, a councilor at law, has decided the lawsuit in Marcellina’s favor. The proceedings also reveal Figaro is the son of a past romance between Bartolo and Marcellina. Susanna, Figaro, and their new inlaws happily prepare for a double wedding. The Countess dictates Susanna’s letter to the Count, naming the place where they are to meet, and Susanna soon slips her note to the Count.
That evening in the garden, Barbarina innocently informs Figaro of the rendezvous between the Count and “Susanna.” Figaro delivers a diatribe against the perfidy of women.
Thinking, as does the watchful Figaro, that the Countess is Susanna, the Count passionately courts his own wife, urging her to meet him later in the arbor. As Figaro prepares to punish the guilty pair, Susanna, dressed as the Countess, reappears. Figaro quickly sees through her disguise, and the two make peace. Figaro then pretends to woo the “Countess” in order to provoke the Count. Witnessing this, the Count is deaf to pleas for mercy until the real Countess appears, revealing her identity and the Count’s mistake. The Count begs forgiveness, the Countess grants it, and all rejoice.
Meet the Artists
Read the Cuesheet
Read the Student Guide
Listen to the Story
Anonymous, The Exposure of Cherubino from The Marriage of Figaro, 1880.
Presented by Washington National Opera, host Saul Lilienstein takes you through the musical world of Mozart’s 1786 comic opera, The Marriage of Figaro.
Watch an Excerpt
Marriage of Figaro Highlights
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