The Marriage of Figaro

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Veronique Gens, Patrizia Ciofi, Angelika Kirchschlager, Simon Keenlyside, Concerto Köln

album cover

An Upstairs/Downstairs Comic Opera

Georges Bizet, the French composer of Carmen, once drew an emotional distinction between Beethoven and Mozart. When listening to the Eroica symphony, Beethoven's Third, he wrote, "I am moved and surprised, and my eyes, ears, and intelligence are inadequate to admire them. But when I hear The Marriage of Figaro . . . I am altogether happy, I experience a feeling of well-being, a complete satisfaction."

That's a telling distinction; Mozart's more formal theater works, like this opera buffa (comic opera) are rhapsodic swirls of evocative consonance. As much as you might try to intellectualize them, you can't help but feel them. The young master doesn't try too hard to dazzle; his control of form and harmony are such that he can impart changes of tone and mood with a grace note, or a glance. Everything is in its right place in Mozart; the only deviation from expected form here is the long finale to the second act, a farcical fantasia in which deception is piled on deception for nearly twenty minutes.

Figaro is a sequel of sorts. It's based on the second of three plays by Pierre Beaumarchais about the romantic lives of the French upper crust. The first play was adapted by Rossini into the hit Italian opera The Barber of Seville, and the second catches up with the same characters years later, on a single "crazy" day when the Countess Almaviva realizes her marriage is a sham. Rather than stray, she makes the Count fall in love with her again, by pretending to be someone else. There are flirtations between the royalty and the servants, and attempts to expose the infidelities lead to moments of humor and humiliation.

Opera in Mozart's day was usually thin soup, both in terms of music and message. This one beats that rap, because its inventive themes and scurrying interstitial passages—what Richard Strauss described as the work's "heavenly frivolities"—are so fully developed, they're capable of standing apart from the narrative. This production, which features instruments in common usage during Mozart's time, is less string-heavy than modern interpretations; the winds provide shadings that bring out the luster in Mozart's vocal lines. With the exception of a too-blustery Count, every role enjoys great singing.

Genre: Opera
Released: 2004, Harmonia Mundi
Key Tracks: Act 2: Finale
Catalog Choice: Don Giovanni, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Joan Sutherland, Philharmonia Orchestra (Carlo Maria Giulini, cond.)
Next Stop: Gioachino Rossini: The Barber of Seville, Maria Callas, Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus (Alceo Galliera, cond.)
Book Pages: 528–529

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