Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: The Marriage of FigaroVienna State Opera

Note: The role of Susanna is played on stage by soprano Ying Fang, who cannot sing for health reasons. Maria Nazarova performs the musical part of the role from the orchestra pit.

Count Almaviva has married the pretty Rosina – the ward Bartolo was planning to marry. But Almaviva, being no paragon of virtue, is now chasing after Barbarina, his gardener’s daughter, as well as Susanna, his wife’s maid. While Susanna prepares to marry Figaro, the count’s personal valet, housekeeper Marcellina is hoping to persuade Bartolo to put a stop to the marriage by virtue of a promise of marriage that Figaro once made to her...

In 2021, the Vienna State Opera launched a “Mozart-Da Ponte” cycle, entrusting the staging to Barrie Kosky and the musical direction to Philippe Jordan. After their Don Giovanni, presented in 2022, the duo has reunited for The Marriage of Figaro, the most popular and most performed opera in Mozart’s operatic repertoire. It premiered at Vienna’s Burgtheater in 1786 and represented a daring gamble for the composer and his librettist (with whom he would collaborate on two further operas). Firstly, because it was not the result of a commission, which was unusual in the 18th century, and secondly, because it could have attracted the wrath of Emperor Joseph II, who had recently banned all Vienna performances of La folle journée, ou Le Mariage de Figaro, the Beaumarchais play from which Da Ponte worked, on the grounds that it contained “many shocking things”. This reinterpretation of the imaginative amorous intrigue should, once again, give the mischievous Barrie Kosky an opportunity to surprise his audiences. Meanwhile on stage, baritone Andrè Schuen (the  count), sopranos Hanna-Elisabeth Müller (the countess) and Ying Fang (Susanna), bass Peter Kellner (Figaro) and mezzo-soprano Stephanie Houtzeel (Marcellina) will be keen to champion their score, and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra, conducted by Philippe Jordan, promises a musical interpretation of the highest order.

The performance was broadcast near-live from the Vienna State Opera on 17 March.