ABOUT THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO
The Marriage of Figaro is a comic opera in four acts by Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte), which premiered in Vienna at the Burgtheater on May 1, 1786. Based on Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais’s 1784 play Le Mariage de Figaro, Mozart’s work remains a favourite in the operatic repertoire.
A villa in Italy during the 1950s. The servants Figaro and Susanna are about to be married, but their employer, the Count Almaviva, has also cast his roving eye on the bride-to-be. Figaro vows to outwit his master. And there’s another problem: the much-older Marcellina, housekeeper to Dr. Bartolo, wants to marry Figaro herself—and he owes her a tidy sum of money. The servants scheme with the Countess, who misses her husband’s devotion, as well as the teenage Cherubino, about how to entrap the Count. Along the way, it is revealed that Figaro is the long-lost son of Marcellina and Dr. Bartolo. Susanna sets the servants’ plot in motion by promising the Count a tryst in the garden at night. She and the Countess dress in one another’s clothes for the rendezvous, leading to confusion and anger from Figaro and the Count. Finally, the real Countess reveals herself, and her husband realizes his folly and begs her forgiveness. She grants it, and all of the couples enjoy a happy ending.