Le Nozze di Figaro

Argentine, Italian, Metropolitan Opera, MUSIC, Opera, Portuguese Archive, Puerto Rican, Venezuelan Archive / December 6, 2017 by Editors

Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) is Mozart’s Italian comic opera about one crazy day in a wealthy household in Seville, Spain. The romantic comedy carries on the plot of The Barber of Seville.

Le Nozze di Figaro is one of today’s ten operas that are most frequently performed. Mozart wrote the opera in 1786.

Lorenzo Da Ponte (1749 – 1838) wrote the libretto. He also wrote Mozart librettos for Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte. Da Ponte was the first professor of Italian at Columbia University.

The libretto is based on a 1784 stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro (The Mad Day, or The Marriage of Figaro).

The opera premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna, Austria in 1786. It premiered at the Met in 1940.

One Crazy Day

Count Almaviva is trying to exercise is princely right to sleep with his servant Susanna on her wedding night. Figaro is the Count’s personal valet. Figaro, Susanna, and the Countess Rosina conspire to expose and embarrass the Count. In the end the Count’s love for Countess Rosina is restored.

Le Nozze di Figaro 2017

The Metropolitan Opera performs Le Nozze di Figaro eleven times between Wednesday, December 6, 2017 and Friday, January 19, 2018.

Originally set in 18 century Seville, Sir Richard Eyre’s production sets the action in the 1930s.

Harry Bicket conducts. There are two casts.

Cast Before December 25

Countess Almaviva: Rachel Willis-Sørensen (American)
Susanna: Christiane Karg (German)
Cherubino: Serena Malfi (Italian)
Count Almaviva: Luca Pisaroni (Venezuelan)
Figaro: Adam Plachetka (Czech)

Cast After December 25

Countess Almaviva: Ailyn Pérez (Caitlyn Lynch January 19)
Susanna: Nadine Sierra (Puerto Rican – Italian – Portuguese – American, Florida)
Cherubino: Isabel Leonard (Argentine-American New Yorker)
Count Almaviva: Mariusz Kwiecien (Polish)
Figaro: Ildar Abdrazakov (Russian)