Wolfgang A. Mozart Le nozze di Figaro
Opera buffa in four acts K. 492 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
Text by Lorenzo Da Ponte (1749–1838) after Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais's play La Folle Journée, ou Le Mariage de Figaro (1778)
Renewal
In Italian with German and English surtitles
Duration of the performance: approx. 3 hours
PREMIERE
- 16 August 2009, 18:00
- 19 August 2009, 18:00
- 22 August 2009, 15:00
- 24 August 2009, 18:00
- 29 August 2009, 18:00
Print programme (PDF)
Gerald Finley, Il Conte Almaviva
Dorothea Röschmann, La Contessa di Almaviva
Marlis Petersen, Susanna
Luca Pisaroni, Figaro
Katija Dragojevic, Cherubino
Franz-Josef Selig, Don Bartolo
Marie McLaughlin, Marcellina
Patrick Henckens, Don Basilio
Oliver Ringelhahn, Don Curzio
Adam Plachetka, Antonio
Eva Liebau, Barbarina
Uli Kirsch, Cherubim
Concert Association of the Vienna State Opera Chorus
Vienna Philharmonic
With Le nozze di Figaro Mozart created a world
theatre of human passions that testifies to the elemental
force of eroticism. All forms of love and desire
are found in this opera, and the four generations of
characters – presented in exemplary fashion – are
completely torn between morality, desire and impulse.
In Figaro Mozart not only allows all kinds of intense
human passions but also portrays how they can get
out of control and escalate to extremes, thus setting
his opera far apart from the comedy by Beaumarchais.
That was why I wanted on the one hand to follow the
characters into their darkest psychological depths but
at the same time leave space for exploring the Utopian
moments in Mozart’s music, which for me are so
special in the score of Figaro. An invented character,
a kind of Eros-Angel, indicates this confusing other
dimension that pervades the opera. He always takes
up a position when the characters find themselves in
situations that are diametrically opposed to their
intentions when guided by reason.
Claus Guth