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
Length of performance: approx. 3 hours and 45 minutes.
PREMIERE
- 30 July 2011, 19:00
- 04 August 2011, 19:00
- 11 August 2011, 19:00
- 13 August 2011, 15:00
Print programme (PDF)
Simon Keenlyside, Il Conte Almaviva
Genia Kühmeier, La Contessa di Almaviva
Marlis Petersen, Susanna
Erwin Schrott, Figaro
Katija Dragojevic, Uli Kirsch, Cherubino
Marie McLaughlin, Marcellina
Franz-Josef Selig, Don Bartolo
Patrick Henckens, Don Basilio
Malin Christensson, Barbarina
Oliver Ringelhahn, Don Curzio
Adam Plachetka, Antonio
Concert Association of the Vienna State Opera Chorus
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
With Le nozze di Figaro Mozart created a world theater 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 appears when the characters find themselves in situations that are diametrically opposed to their intentions when guided by reason.
Claus Guth