Opera to me comes before everything else."—Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Mozart, as well as most Classical composers continued the great traditions of large-scale choral forms (Mass and oratorio) but turned to stage works—notably opera—as well. During the Classical period, the stiff, formal conventions of opera seria gave way to the simplicity and realism of lighter, comic works (opera buffa and Singspiel). Written in the vernacular (language of the people), these works presented real people in down-to-earth situations. Often too they satirized the aristocracy, as was the case with Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro (in which the servant Figaro outsmarts his master).

Note these important points:

Reflecting on Classical opera

PLOT IN SHORT (See below for detailed plot)
The Marriage of Figaro recounts the further comic adventures of Figaro, first introduced in Rossini's previous opera, The Barber of Seville. Figaro's master, Count Almaviva, is now married to his love Rosina but has tired of her and pursues the affections of her comely maid Susanna, who is engaged to Figaro. The count hatches a plot to convince Figaro that Susanna is deceiving him and that he should instead marry the noblewoman Marcellina, but Figaro in turn schemes to reunite the count and countess. After many artifices and disguises have backfired, Figaro discovers that Marcellina is his long-lost mother. Figaro and Susanna regain their trust in each other and the count must stoop to begging Rosina's pardon.

Assignments: (Due NO LATER that April 26th) 

1. Answer the following questions:

a. What kind of opera is The Marriage of Figaro?

b. When was it first performed?

c. Who wrote the play upon which it is based?

d. Who wrote the libretto? 

 2. The subtitle of this opera is “One Crazy Day.” Why do you think it is called this? 

3. Among the main characters in this opera, there are two couples of different social classes (one married, the other hoping to be married). Name the four characters, their professions and titles. Discuss how the differences between the aristocratic and servant classes are portrayed by these characters. Which class do you think receives the most sympathetic treatment? Why?  

4.  Essay questions (Please choose one of the following):

  1. Briefly summarize the political situation in the region of Europe were Mozart grew up: who were its rulers and what significant changes were taking place?
  2. What was the Enlightenment and what impact did it have on the music of Mozart's time?
  3. Why are Mozart’s operatic finales so famous? Where do you find them and how do they differ from other parts of the opera?

OR (Instead of all of the above, write the following essay): Describe how the plot of this opera (The Marriage of Figaro) could be updated to modern times. What is unrealistic and what is realistic? What kind of music would serve the comic situations?

DETAILED PLOT

ACT I. A country estate outside Seville, late eighteenth century. While preparing for their wedding, the valet Figaro learns from the maid Susanna that their philandering employer, Count Almaviva, has designs on her. At this the servant vows to outwit his master. Before long the scheming Bartolo enters the servants' quarters with his housekeeper, Marcellina, who wants Figaro to marry her to cancel a debt he cannot pay. After Marcellina and Susanna trade insults, the amorous page Cherubino arrives, reveling in his infatuation with all women. He hides when the Count shows up, furious because he caught Cherubino flirting with Barbarina, the gardener's daughter. The Count pursues Susanna but conceals himself when the gossiping music master Don Basilio approaches. The Count steps forward, however, when Basilio suggests that Cherubino has a crush on the Countess. Almaviva is enraged further when he discovers Cherubino in the room. Figaro returns with fellow servants, who praise the Count's progressive reform in abolishing the droit du seigneur — the right of a noble to take a manservant's place on his wedding night. Almaviva assigns Cherubino to his regiment in Seville and leaves Figaro to cheer up the unhappy adolescent.

ACT II. In her boudoir, the Countess laments her husband's waning love but plots to chasten him, encouraged by Figaro and Susanna. They will send Cherubino, disguised as Susanna, to a romantic assignation with the Count. Cherubino, smitten with the Countess, appears, and the two women begin to dress the page for his farcical rendezvous. While Susanna goes out to find a ribbon, the Count knocks at the door, furious to find it locked. Cherubino quickly hides in a closet, and the Countess admits her husband, who, when he hears a noise, is skeptical of her story that Susanna is inside the wardrobe. He takes his wife to fetch some tools with which to force the closet door. Meanwhile, Susanna, having observed everything from behind a screen, helps Cherubino out a window, then takes his place in the closet. Both Count and Countess are amazed to find her there. All seems well until the gardener, Antonio, storms in with crushed geraniums from a flower bed below the window. Figaro, who has run in to announce that the wedding is ready, pretends it was he who jumped from the window, faking a sprained ankle. Marcellina, Bartolo and Basilio burst into the room waving a court summons for Figaro, which delights the Count, as this gives him an excuse to delay the wedding.

ACT III. In an audience room where the wedding is to take place, Susanna leads the Count on with promises of a rendezvous in the garden. The nobleman, however, grows doubtful when he spies her conspiring with Figaro; he vows revenge. Marcellina is astonished but thrilled to discover that Figaro is in fact her long-lost natural son by Bartolo. Mother and son embrace, provoking Susanna's anger until she too learns the truth. Finding a quiet moment, the Countess recalls her past happiness, then joins Susanna in composing a letter that invites the Count to the garden that night. Later, during the marriage ceremony of Figaro and Susanna, the bride manages to slip the note, sealed with a hatpin, to the Count, who pricks his finger, dropping the pin, which Figaro retrieves.

ACT IV. In the moonlit garden, Barbarina, after unsuccessfully trying to find the lost hatpin, tells Figaro and Marcellina about the coming assignation between the Count and Susanna. Basilio counsels that it is wise to play the fool. Figaro inveighs against women and leaves, missing Susanna and the Countess, ready for their masquerade. Alone, Susanna rhapsodizes on her love for Figaro, but he, overhearing, thinks she means the Count. Susanna hides in time to see Cherubino woo the Countess — now disguised in Susanna's dress — until Almaviva chases him away and sends his wife, who he thinks is Susanna, to an arbor, to which he follows. By now Figaro understands the joke and, joining the fun, makes exaggerated love to Susanna in her Countess disguise. The Count returns, seeing, or so he thinks, Figaro with his wife. Outraged, he calls everyone to witness his judgment, but now the real Countess appears and reveals the ruse. Grasping the truth at last, the Count begs her pardon. All are reunited, and so ends this "mad day" at the court of the Almavivas.

FIGARO (The Marriage of Figaro, or The Crazy Day) Play by Beaumarchais, second of trilogy (1775-92) (Sequel to Barber of Seville = BoS)

Set in Almaviva's castle near Seville, Spain

CAST

The Count (Almaviva in BoS)

The Countess (Rosina in BoS)

Figaro, valet to the count (barber in BoS)

Susanna, chambermaid to the countess

Cherubino, page to the count

Marcellina, housekeeper

Bartolo, Doctor from Seville (Rosina's guardian in BoS)

Basilio, music master and trouble maker

Antonio, gardener and uncle to Susanna

Barbarina, Antonio's daughter

Chorus of servants, etc.