Who wrote the Libretto for The Marriage of Figaro?
Se vuol ballare
The cavatina "" is an aria for baritone or bass from the first act of the opera "The Marriage of Figaro" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro (1784). The Italian title means "If you want to dance".
Alexandre et Roxane
The subject of the libretto was Alexander the Great and his marriage to the Bactrian noble Roxana.
Un mari à la porte
Un mari à la porte is an opérette in one act of 1859 with music by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was by Alfred Delacour (Alfred Charlemagne Lartigue) and Léon Morand.
Ferdinand Lemaire
Ferdinand Lemaire (1832–1879) was a French librettist and poet, best known for writing the libretto of Camille Saint-Saëns's opera "Samson et Dalila".
The Marriage of Figaro (play)
"The Marriage" was written as a sequel to "The Barber". In his preface to the play, Beaumarchais says that Louis François, Prince of Conti had requested it. The play's denunciation of aristocratic privilege has been characterised as foreshadowing the French Revolution. The revolutionary leader Georges Danton said that the play "killed off the nobility"; in exile, Napoleon Bonaparte called it "the Revolution already put into action."
L'amor coniugale
Like Beethoven's "Fidelio", the libretto of "L'amor coniugale" is based on Jean-Nicolas Bouilly's French libretto for Pierre Gaveaux's 1798 opera "Léonore ou L'amour conjugal". Unlike "Fidelio" which focuses on the struggle for political liberty, Mayr's opera, also known as "Il custode di buon cuore" (The Good-hearted Jailer) and described in its libretto as a "farsa sentimentale", focuses more on the interpersonal relationships between the protagonists and contains comic elements. Rossi condensed Bouilly's two-act libretto into one act containing 19 scenes and changed the setting from the Napoleonic wars to 17th century Poland.
Italo Tajo
Tajo made relatively few recordings, the most famous being the 1950 RCA Victor "Rigoletto", with Leonard Warren, Erna Berger and Jan Peerce, conducted by Renato Cellini. He also recorded "The Marriage of Figaro" and "Don Giovanni" for Cetra. He can also be heard in live broadcasts of "Macbeth", opposite Maria Callas, conducted by Victor de Sabata; and the Florence "War and Peace".
The Marriage of Figaro
"Figaro" premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 1 May 1786, with a cast listed in the "Roles" section below. Mozart himself directed the first two performances, conducting seated at the keyboard, the custom of the day. Later performances were conducted by Joseph Weigl. The first production was given eight further performances, all in 1786.
Antonio Salieri
Upon returning to Vienna following his success in Paris, Salieri met and befriended Lorenzo Da Ponte and had his first professional encounters with Mozart. Da Ponte wrote his first opera libretto for Salieri, "Il ricco d'un giorno" (A rich man for a day) in 1784, which was not a success. Salieri next turned to Giambattista Casti as a librettist; a more successful set of collaboration flowed from this pairing. In the meantime Da Ponte began working with Mozart on "Le nozze di Figaro" ("The Marriage of Figaro"). In 1785 Salieri produced one of his greatest works with the text by Casti, "La grotta di Trofonio" (The cave of Trophonius), the first opera buffa published in full score by Artaria. Shortly after this success Joseph II had Mozart and Salieri each contribute a one-act opera and/or singspiel for production at a banquet in 1786. Salieri collaborated with Casti to produce a parody of the relationship between poet and composer in "Prima la musica e poi le parole" ('First the music and then the words). This short work also highlighted the typical backstage antics of two high flown sopranos. Salieri then returned to Paris for the premiere of his tragédie lyrique "Les Horaces" (The Horatii), which proved a failure, which was more than made up for with his next Parisian opera "Tarare", with a libretto by Beaumarchais. This was intended to be the "" of reform opera, a completely new synthesis of poetry and music that was an 18th-century anticipation of the ideals of Richard Wagner. Salieri also created a sacred cantata "Le Jugement dernier" (The Last Judgement). The success of his opera "Tarare" was such that it was soon translated into Italian at Joseph II's behest by Lorenzo Da Ponte as "Axur, re d'Ormus" (Axur, king of Hormuz) and staged at the royal wedding of Franz II in 1788.
Les mariés de la tour Eiffel
Les mariés de la tour Eiffel ("The Wedding Party on the Eiffel Tower") is a ballet to a libretto by Jean Cocteau, choreography by Jean Börlin, set by , costumes by Jean Hugo, and music by five members of Les Six: Georges Auric, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc and Germaine Tailleferre. The score calls for two narrators. The ballet was first performed in Paris in 1921.
Théâtre Lyrique
Other successful revivals under Carvalho's leadership at the Théâtre Historique included André Grétry's three-act opéra comiqe "Richard Coeur-de-lion" (23 May 1856; 302 performances); "Les noces de Figaro", a French translation by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré of Mozart's four-act comic opera "Le nozze di Figaro" (8 May 1858; 200 performances); "L'enlèvement au sérail", a French translation by Prosper Pascal of Mozart's two-act opéra comique "Die Entführung aus dem Serail" (11 May 1859; 87 performances); and Gluck's "Orphée" (18 November 1859; 138 performances). The last had been translated from the original Italian by Pierre-Louis Moline when Gluck had adapted his Vienna version in 1774 for the Paris Opera, replacing the alto castrato role of Orfeo with the high tenor ("haute-contre") role of Orphée. The Théâtre Lyrique's production was a landmark revival in the history of the opera, with the music adapted by Hector Berlioz for the mezzo-soprano Pauline Viardot as Orphée. Eurydice was sung by Marie Sax, who later became a leading soprano at the Paris Opera.
Thomas Allen (baritone)
Allen's first book, "Foreign Parts – A Singer's Journal" was published in 1993. In November 2002, he directed for the first time in Britten's "Albert Herring" at the Royal College of Music. Other directorial credits include Mozart's "Così fan tutte" and "Don Giovanni" (for Samling, of which he is the patron) at the Sage Music Centre in Gateshead. In 2006, he made his American directorial debut with a production of Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro" for Arizona Opera. In 2007, he directed a new production of "The Barber of Seville" for Scottish Opera. He has directed a new production of "The Marriage of Figaro" for the company which premiered in Glasgow in October 2010. He also performed as the Narrator/Dr. Pangloss in the 2005 concert of Leonard Bernstein's "Candide" at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York City.
Filippo Acciaiuoli
Filippo Acciaiuoli (1637 – 8 February 1700) was an Italian composer, librettist, theater manager, machine designer, and poet. Acciaiuoli spent much of his youth and early adulthood traveling throughout Europe, the Middle East and Northern Africa. After returning to Rome in his early twenties, he initially studied mathematics at a seminary in Rome but ultimately became interested in theater. He is best known for his work as a librettist for operas such as Jacopo Melani's "Girello", which premiered in Rome in 1668, and as the inventor of numerous sophisticated machines that were used in theatrical productions of the day. He also composed one opera, "Chi è cagion del suo mal pianga se stesso", which premiered in Rome in 1682.
Petteri Salomaa
In 1983 Salomaa made his professional opera debut at the Finnish National Opera (FNO) as Figaro in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro". In 1985 he made his debut at the Wexford Festival Opera as the King of Scotland in Handel's "Ariodante". He had several major critical successes in performances of Mozart operas at the Drottningholm Palace Theatre in Stockholm, including performances of Leporello in "Don Giovanni" (1986), Figaro (1987), Nardo in "La Finta Giardiniera" (1988). In 1988 he made his debut at the Dutch National Opera as Masetto in "Don Giovanni" and Papageno in "The Magic Flute". In 1989 he sang Figaro for his debuts at Theater Freiburg and the Michigan Opera Theater. He remained committed to Theater Freiburg through 1991 as a principal artist.
Marino Faliero (opera)
Marino Faliero (or "Marin Faliero") is a "tragedia lirica", or tragic opera, in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Giovanni Emanuele Bidéra wrote the Italian libretto, with revisions by Agostino Ruffini, after Casimir Delavigne's play. It is inspired by Lord Byron's drama "Marino Faliero" (1820) and based on the life of Marino Faliero ("c."1285-1355), the Venetian Doge.
Édouard Du Puy
Although Du Puy applied for amnesty, it was of no use, and he left his family and traveled to Stockholm, where king Gustav IV Adolf had been deposed by a coup. In 1812, Du Puy was reinstated at the opera both as actor and Kapellmeister. Among other roles, he played Figaro in "The Marriage of Figaro" by Mozart. By 1795, Du Puy was a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, and became titular professor in 1814.
Martino Carbonaro
Martino Carbonaro, o sia Gli sposi fuggitivi was the last of fifty-one operas written by Italian composer Giuseppe Gazzaniga. The farsa has an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Foppa and premiered at the Teatro San Moisè in Venice, Italy in 1801.
Vito Frazzi
Frazzi composed symphonic, choral and chamber music, and a number of operas. "Re Lear" was written between 1922 and 1928, but not performed until 1939; it is loosely based on Shakespeare's "King Lear". "Don Chisciotte", to Frazzi's own libretto derived from the "Don Quijote" of Cervantes and the "Vida de Don Quijote y Sancho" of Miguel de Unamuno, was composed between 1940 and 1950 and received its première at the Teatro Comunale of Florence on 28 April 1952. It consists of six scenes which may be performed either separately or together; a supplement to it, "Le nozze di Camaccio" ("the marriage of Camaccio"), though published, has apparently not been performed. Frazzi destroyed the score of his opera "L’ottava moglie di Barbablù" ("Bluebeard's eighth wife") after its première at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence in January 1940; the work is unpublished.
Hermann Prey
He was at home with comic opera Italian-style, displaying scenic intelligence, liveliness and hilarity. His virtuoso agility and great comic acting made him an obvious choice for numerous productions of Mozart's and Rossini's operas in the 1970s. In 1972 he performed as Figaro in Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's television film of Rossini's "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" with Teresa Berganza as Rosina, Luigi Alva as Almaviva and conductor Claudio Abbado. He appeared alongside Fritz Wunderlich and Hans Hotter in the live televised version of "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" in its German translation, "Der Barbier von Sevilla". He also portrayed Figaro in 1976 in Ponnelle's film of Mozart's "Le nozze di Figaro".
The Marriage of Figaro
The opera is a cornerstone of the repertoire and appears consistently among the top ten in the Operabase list of most frequently performed operas.
Ortensio Mauro
(Bartolomeo) Ortensio Mauro (1632/33 – 1725) was an Italian writer and librettist.
He was born in 1632 or 1633 in Padua, where he studied literature at the university. He entered the service of the family of the Elector of Hanover in Germany as Italian secretary and eventually became attached to the court of Sophia, Electress of Hanover. Mauro wrote poetry, occasionally served the royal family as a diplomat and wrote the libretti for eight operas by fellow Italian, composer Agostino Steffani including "Henrico Leone", an opera written to inaugurate the new court theatre in Hanover in 1689.
His opera "La superbia d'Alessandro" was the basis for the libretto of George Frederic Handel's opera "Alessandro".
Writer
Libretti (the plural of libretto) are the texts for musical works such as operas. The Venetian poet and librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, for example, wrote the libretto for some of Mozart's greatest operas. Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa were Italian librettists who wrote for Giacomo Puccini. Most opera composers collaborate with a librettist but unusually, Richard Wagner wrote both the music and the libretti for his works himself.
The Barber of Seville (play)
According to the information Figaro gives at various points throughout the plays, his life story appears to be thus: he was the illegitimate son of Dr. Bartholo and his maid Marceline, and presumably therefore given his mother's family name, was born Emmanuel de Verte-Allure. He was kidnapped as a baby and raised by gypsies, who are probably the ones that renamed him Figaro. After he grew "disgusted with their ways" he left to become a surgeon, and apparently took up a short-term job in the household of Count Almaviva during this time to support himself. Though the Count referred to him as a "rather bad servant," he was pleased enough with Figaro to write him a recommendation to the Bureau in Madrid, where he was given a job as an assistant veterinary surgeon, much to his disappointment. While working there, he began dabbling in a literary career, apparently with great success. He was fired from the Bureau but stayed on in Madrid for a time trying to work as a publisher and playwright. He angered the censors with several of his works, and was briefly imprisoned. Eventually he gave up writing, and set himself up as a barber surgeon. After "pensively proceeding through the two Castilles, la Mancha, Extremadura, the Sierra Morena, and Andalusia" he set up shop in Seville, where he became reacquainted with Count Almaviva, and after assisting him with some romantic troubles, was hired as the Count's personal valet. He evidently retains this position for the remainder of his life. It is after he returns to work for the Count that he marries Suzanne, though at what point he met her is unclear. Given that Suzanne's uncle Antonio works for the Count, it seems likely she was hired on his recommendation when the Countess moved into the palace and a maid was needed for her, in which case she and Figaro would have met after the events of "The Barber of Seville."
Maria Theresa of Austria (1767–1827)
The premiere could not be arranged in time, however, so the opera "The Marriage of Figaro" was substituted on the express orders of Maria Theresa's uncle, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II. The choice of "The Marriage of Figaro" was considered improper for a new bride by many observers, and the couple left the opera theater early without seeing the entire work performed. Mozart complained bitterly of the intrigues surrounding this incident in a letter to his friend Gottfried von Jacquin that was written in stages between 15 October and 25 October 1787. She was also present in Prague in September 1791 for the premiere of Mozart's opera "La clemenza di Tito", which was written as part of the celebrations there in honor of the coronation of her father as King of Bohemia.
The Marriage of Figaro
The Count and Countess return. The Countess, thinking herself trapped, desperately admits that Cherubino is hidden in the closet. The enraged Count draws his sword, promising to kill Cherubino on the spot, but when the door is opened, they both find to their astonishment only Susanna (Finale: "Esci omai, garzon malnato" – "Come out of there, you ill-born boy!"). The Count demands an explanation; the Countess tells him it is a practical joke, to test his trust in her. Shamed by his jealousy, the Count begs for forgiveness. When the Count presses about the anonymous letter, Susanna and the Countess reveal that the letter was written by Figaro, and then delivered by Basilio. Figaro then arrives and tries to start the wedding festivities, but the Count berates him with questions about the anonymous note. Just as the Count is starting to run out of questions, Antonio the gardener arrives, complaining that a man has jumped out of the window and damaged his carnations while running away. Antonio adds that he tentatively identified the running man as Cherubino, but Figaro claims it was he himself who jumped out of the window, and pretends to have injured his foot while landing. Figaro, Susanna, and the Countess attempt to discredit Antonio as a chronic drunkard whose constant inebriation makes him unreliable and prone to fantasy, but Antonio brings forward a paper which, he says, was dropped by the escaping man. The Count orders Figaro to prove he was the jumper by identifying the paper (which is, in fact, Cherubino's appointment to the army). Figaro is at a loss, but Susanna and the Countess manage to signal the correct answers, and Figaro triumphantly identifies the document. His victory is, however, short-lived: Marcellina, Bartolo, and Basilio enter, bringing charges against Figaro and demanding that he honor his contract to marry Marcellina, since he cannot repay her loan. The Count happily postpones the wedding in order to investigate the charge.
Stichomythia
In the scene in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera "The Marriage of Figaro", libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, where Susanna learns that Marcellina is Figaro's mother, she repeats her disbelief ("Sua madre?", that is, "his mother?") to each character and is reassured in the same words. A critic has called that "the merriest and most congenial form imaginable" of stichomythia. For another example from opera, the following passage from the libretto by Andrea Maffei for Giuseppe Verdi's "I masnadieri" has been called "musical stichomythia", though it does not contain repetition or antithesis:
AMALIA: Qual mare, qual terra da me t'ha diviso?
CARLO: Deh! cessa, infelice, l'inchiesta crudel!
AMALIA: Mendaci novelle ti dissero ucciso.
CARLO: Beato se chiuso m'avesse l'avel!
AMALIA: Tu pure, o mio Carlo, provasti gli affanni?
CARLO: Li possa il tuo core per sempre ignorar!
AMALIA: Anch'io, derelitta, ti piansi lung'anni.
CARLO: E un angelo osava per me lagrimar?
René Jacobs
More recently, as a conductor, Jacobs has recorded numerous operas and sacred and secular works of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. His recording of Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro" is especially renowned, having won such awards as "Gramophone"'s Record of the Year for 2004, "Le Monde de la Musique"'s "Choc" of the Year for 2004, a Grammy Award for "Best Opera recording of
2005", and two Midem Classical Awards in 2004. Other award-winning recordings include George Frideric Handel’s "Rinaldo" (Cannes Classical Award, 2004), and Joseph Haydn’s Die "Jahreszeiten" ("Diapason d’Or" of 2005). The partial discography below lists some of the many other awards won by Jacobs' recordings.
His recordings and work have won numerous awards, including the Grammy Award for "Best Opera", "Gramophone" 's "Record of the Year", the "III Premio Traetta 2011", and numerous European awards. His recording of Mozart's Magic Flute was Record of the Year at the inaugural International Classical Music Awards in April 2011.
Flute Concertino (Chaminade)
Scholarship indicates that the Concertino was commissioned by the Paris Conservatoire in 1902, presumably as an examination piece for flute students, where the celebrated French flautist and teacher Paul Taffanel, to whom the Concertino was dedicated, taught. Among flautists, legend has it that Chaminade wrote the Concertino to punish a flute-playing lover after he left her to marry someone else, wanting to make a piece so fiendishly difficult that he could not play it (though he supposedly did manage). However, Chaminade had married a music publisher the year before the piece was commissioned, which lessens the validity of the legend. Not long after composing it, Chaminade orchestrated it for a London concert played by her friend, flautist Marguerite de Forest Anderson.
Michel Trempont
Trempont attained an international career with performances at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, where he made his debut in 1966, and sang (French versions) Figaro in the Mozart opera and in Rossini's; Marcello, Sharpless, Gaillardin (Gabriel von Eisenstein) in "Die Fledermaus (La Chauve-Souris)", Rimbaud in "le Comte Ory", Zurga in "les Pêcheurs de perles" and le Marquis de Clainvillela in Sauguet's "La Gageure imprévue". He appeared at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, the Royal Opera House London, La Scala, Milan, La Fenice, Venice, Teatro San Carlo in Naples and San Francisco Opera. His repertoire has included Figaro (in both Mozart's "Le nozze di Figaro" and Rossini's "Il barbiere di Siviglia"), Guglielmo ("Cosi fan tutte"), Rimbaud ("Le Comte Ory"), Sulpice ("La fille du régiment"), Fieramosca ("Benvenuto Cellini"), Taddeo ("L'Italiana in Algeri"), Sancho ("Don Quichotte"), and the king in Prokofiev's "L'Amour des trois oranges".
Karl Ludwig Giesecke
In later work, Giesecke translated the Italian libretti of Mozart's operas "Le nozze di Figaro" (1793) and "Così fan tutte" (1794) into German. In total he was to write libretti for more than fifteen operas by various composers between 1789 and 1800; see listing below.
The Marriage of Figaro
Joseph Haydn appreciated the opera greatly, writing to a friend that he heard it in his dreams. In summer 1790 Haydn attempted to produce the work with his own company at Eszterháza, but was prevented from doing so by the death of his patron, Nikolaus Esterházy.
Ferdinando Fontana
During his time in Milan, Fontana wrote two plays in Milanese dialect, "La Pina Madamin" and "La Statôa del sciôr Incioda". Both had considerable success and starred Edoardo Ferravilla, considered one of the greatest comic actors in Milanese theatre. He wrote numerous libretti, including two for Alberto Franchetti ("Asrael" and "Zoroastro") and two for Puccini ("Le Villi" and "Edgar"). He also translated several operetta libretti for performance in Italy, including Franz Lehár's "Die lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow)" and "Der Graf von Luxemburg (The Count of Luxembourg)", Oskar Nedbal's "Polenblut (Polish Blood)", and Edmund Eysler's "Der Frauenfresser (The Woman-Eater)". Early in his career, Fontana's output was prodigious: an 1886 article in "La Stampa" said that at the time, 13 new libretti by Fontana were being composed by 12 different composers.
Giacomo Badoaro
Giacomo Badoaro (1602–1654) was a Venetian nobleman and amateur poet. He is most famous for writing the libretto for Claudio Monteverdi's opera "Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria" (1640). He also provided librettos for the operas "Ulisse errante" by Francesco Sacrati (1644) and "Elena rapita da Teseo" (1653) by Jacopo Melani. He was a member of the Venetian intellectual circle, the Accademia degli Incogniti.
Sull'aria...che soave zeffiretto
"" (On the breeze...What a gentle little Zephyr) is a "duettino", or a short duet, from act 3 of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera "The Marriage of Figaro", K. 492, to a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. In the duettino, Countess Almaviva (a soprano) dictates to Susanna (also a soprano) the invitation to a tryst addressed to the countess' husband in a plot to expose his infidelity.
Francesco Palmieri (poet)
During the 1690s, he moved to Hanover. He wrote the libretto, and perhaps also the music, of a large-scale cantata ("Accademia per musica") which was performed on 1 November 1695, to celebrate the marriage of Princess Charlotte Felicitas of Brunswick-Lüneburg to Duke Rinaldo I of Modena. The score is lost, but it appears from the libretto to have comprised seventeen numbers for five characters (Clio, Gloria, Giunone, Amore and Fato). Palmieri (also known as "Count Palmieri"), wrote the libretto of "Briseide", the opera by Pietro Torri and Agostino Steffani, performed during carnival, 1696. From that yer, when Steffani was continually away on diplomatic duties, Palmieri was general manager of music at the court of Hanover.
The Ghosts of Versailles
The cast of the opera-within-the-opera is introduced. It is twenty years after the events of "The Marriage of Figaro". Figaro appears, chased by his wife Susanna, his employer Count Almaviva, his many creditors and quite a lot of women claiming he is the father of their children. Figaro, now aging but still as wily and clever as ever, lists his many achievements in a lengthy aria. Meanwhile, Count Almaviva is engaged in a secret plan to sell Marie Antoinette's jeweled necklace to the English ambassador to buy the Queen's freedom. The Count, Beaumarchais explains, is estranged from his wife Rosina due to her affair, years earlier, with the now-dead Cherubino, an assignation which produced a son, Léon. Léon wants to marry Florestine, Almaviva's illegitimate daughter (by a lady of the Court well-known to Marie Antoinette, according to Beaumarchais), but the Count has forbidden the union as retribution for his wife's infidelity and has promised Florestine instead to his friend Patrick Honoré Bégearss.
London Figaro
Among those who contributed to it were William Archer (writing as "Almaviva", drama critic), Ernest Bendall, Faustin Betbeder ("Faustin", caricaturist), Percy Betts ("Cherubino", musical critic), Ambrose Bierce ("Passing Showman", "Town Crier"), Edward Bradley ("Cuthbert Bede"), Aglen Dowty ("Young and Happy Husband", "OPQ Philander Smiff"), John Baker Hopkins, Frank Marshall, Edwin Milliken, Clement Scott ("Almaviva", drama critic), and Edward Blanchard (drama critic). Mortimer was a chess master and so the Figaro had a chess column, which from 1872 until 1876 was contributed by Johann Löwenthal and from 1876 to 1882 by Wilhelm Steinitz.
Lorenzo Da Ponte
With the help of Salieri, Da Ponte applied for and obtained the post of librettist to the Italian Theatre in Vienna. Here he also found a patron in the banker Raimund Wetzlar von Plankenstern, benefactor of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. As court poet and librettist in Vienna, he collaborated with Mozart, Salieri and Vicente Martín y Soler. Da Ponte wrote the libretti for Mozart's most popular Italian operas, "The Marriage of Figaro" (1786), "Don Giovanni" (1787), and "Così fan tutte" (1790), and Soler's "Una cosa rara", as well as the text on which the cantata "Per la ricuperata salute di Ofelia" (collaboratively composed in 1785 by Salieri, Mozart and Cornetti) is based. All of Da Ponte's works were adaptations of pre-existing plots, as was common among librettists of the time, with the exceptions of "L'arbore di Diana" with Soler, and "Così fan tutte", which he began with Salieri, but completed with Mozart. However the quality of his elaboration gave them new life.
Piano Concerto No. 24 (Mozart)
Mozart composed the concerto in the winter of 1785–86, during his fourth season in Vienna. It was the third in a set of three concertos composed in quick succession, the others being No. 22 in E major and No. 23 in A major. Mozart finished composing the No. 24 shortly before the premiere of his comic opera "The Marriage of Figaro"; the two works are assigned adjacent numbers of 491 and 492 in the Köchel catalogue. Although composed at the same time, the two works contrast greatly: the opera is almost entirely in major keys while the concerto is one of Mozart's few minor-key works. The pianist and musicologist Robert D. Levin suggests that the concerto, along with the two concertos that precede it, may have served as an outlet for a darker aspect of Mozart's creativity at the time he was composing the comic opera.
Aleksandr Golovin (artist)
Golovin provided the scenic design for an important production of Pierre Beaumarchais's "The Marriage of Figaro" at the Moscow Art Theatre. The seminal Russian theatre practitioner Constantin Stanislavski directed the play in fast and free-flowing production that opened on 28 April 1927, having been rehearsed since the end of 1925. Stanislavski re-located the play's action to pre-Revolutionary France and trimmed its five-act structure to eleven scenes; Golovin employed a revolve to quicken scene-changes. It was a great success, garnering ten curtain calls on opening night.
Ernst Lert
As a music scholar, Lert published several biographies on notable musical figures and wrote the book "Mozart auf dem Theater" ("Mozart and the Theatre", published 1918). He also contributed articles to numerous magazines, music journals, and newspapers. He wrote the libretto for Hugo Weisgall's "The Tenor" (1952) and wrote the German libretto for Riccardo Zandonai's "Die Kavaliere von Ekeby" ("I cavalieri di Ekebù").
The Marriage of Figaro
Mozart wrote two replacement arias for Susanna when the role was taken over by Adriana Ferrarese in the 1789 revival. The replacement arias, "Un moto di gioia" (replacing "Venite, inginocchiatevi" in act 2) and "Al desio di chi t'adora" (replacing "Deh vieni, non tardar" in act 4), in which the two clarinets are replaced with basset horns, are normally not used in modern performances. A notable exception was a series of performances at the Metropolitan Opera in 1998 with Cecilia Bartoli as Susanna.
The Marriage of Figaro
Figaro's hearing follows, and the Count's judgment is that Figaro must marry Marcellina. Figaro argues that he cannot get married without his parents' permission, and that he does not know who his parents are, because he was stolen from them when he was a baby. The ensuing discussion reveals that Figaro is Rafaello, the long-lost illegitimate son of Bartolo and Marcellina. A touching scene of reconciliation occurs. During the celebrations, Susanna enters with a payment to release Figaro from his debt to Marcellina. Seeing Figaro and Marcellina in celebration together, Susanna mistakenly believes that Figaro now prefers Marcellina to her. She has a tantrum and slaps Figaro's face. Marcellina explains, and Susanna, realizing her mistake, joins the celebration. Bartolo, overcome with emotion, agrees to marry Marcellina that evening in a double wedding (sextet: "Riconosci in questo amplesso" – "Recognize in this embrace").
Pierre Beaumarchais
Beaumarchais's Figaro plays are "Le Barbier de Séville", "Le Mariage de Figaro", and "La Mère coupable". Figaro and Count Almaviva, the two characters Beaumarchais most likely conceived in his travels in Spain, were (with Rosine, later the Countess Almaviva) the only ones present in all three plays. They are indicative of the change in social attitudes before, during, and after the French Revolution. Figaro and Almaviva first appeared in "Le Sacristain", which he wrote around 1765 and dubbed "an interlude, imitating the Spanish style." Naturally, this thinly veiled government criticism did not go without opposition. Upon first reading a manuscript of Beaumarchais's play, King Louis XVI stated that "this man mocks everything that must be respected in a government" and refused to let it be performed.
To a lesser degree, the Figaro plays are semi-autobiographical. Don Guzman Brid'oison ("Le Mariage") and Bégearss ("La Mère") were caricatures of two of Beaumarchais's real-life adversaries, Goezman and Bergasse. The page Chérubin ("Le Mariage") resembled the youthful Beaumarchais, who did contemplate suicide when his love was to marry another. Suzanne, the heroine of "Le Mariage" and "La Mère", was modelled after Beaumarchais's third wife, Marie-Thérèse de Willer-Mawlaz. Meanwhile, some of the Count monologues reflect on the playwright's remorse over his numerous sexual exploits.
I due Figaro (Mercadante)
The manuscript of "I due Figaro" was discovered in 2009 in Madrid by an Italian musicologist. Two years later, on 24 June 2011, the first production of the opera in modern times was presented at the Ravenna Festival, conducted by Riccardo Muti. The music of this opera, enriched by several dances of Spanish sonority but hampered by a libretto at times weak, was judged "lightweight and brilliant, gracefully written, often refined in the effects of the counterpoint, in the intertwining of the internal voices, in the quality of instrumentation and rhythmic inventiveness". The opera is introduced by the "Sinfonia caratteristica spagnola", a lively ouverture based on typical Spanish dances, that obtained a good success and was also printed as a separate piece.
Piano Concerto No. 23 (Mozart)
The Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major (K. 488) is a composition for piano and orchestra written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was finished, according to Mozart's own catalogue, on March 2, 1786, two months prior to the premiere of his opera, "Le nozze di Figaro", and some three weeks prior to the completion of his next piano concerto. It was one of three subscription concerts given that spring and was probably played by Mozart himself at one of these.
Cyrano (Damrosch)
"Cyrano" premiered on February 27, 1913, with Pasquale Amato in the title role and Frances Alda (Gatti-Casazza's wife) as Roxanne in a performance conducted by Alfred Hertz. The sets were designed by Antonio Rovescalli while the costumes were designed by the famed Paris company, Maison Muelle. The work was warmly received by the audience at the opening night, but less so by the critics. The critic for the "Boston Evening Transcript" had praise for the libretto but found the music "lack[ing] individuality, imagination, and communicative force." Robert Aldrich in his opening night review for the "New York Times" likewise praised the libretto as a literary work and noted how well Henderson's verse was suited to the needs of the singers, but went on to say:
Adolphe Deloffre
As principal conductor at the Théâtre-Lyrique he conducted an important series of revivals of Mozart operas, starting with "The Marriage of Figaro" (as "Les noces de Figaro") in May 1858 (he also conducted the premiere at the Opéra-Comique in 1872), then in May 1859 "Die Entführung aus dem Serail" (as "L’Enlèvement au Sérail"), "Così fan tutte" (as "Peines d’Amours perdues") in March 1863, "The Magic Flute" (as "La flute enchantée") in February 1865, and "Don Giovanni" (as "Don Juan" in a translation by Henri Trianon) in 1866.
Nicolas-François Guillard
Nicolas-François Guillard (16 January 1752 – 26 December 1814) was a French librettist. He was born in Chartres and died in Paris, the recipient of a government pension in recognition of his work writing librettos. He was also on "Comité de Lecture" of the Paris Opéra. One of the foremost of the French librettist of his generation, he wrote libretti for many noted composers of the day, including Salieri ("Les Horaces") and in particular Sacchini ("Œdipe à Colone", amongst many others). His most famous work is "Iphigénie en Tauride", his first libretto, set by Gluck after the composer had initially rejected it. Gluck collaborated with Guillard to heavily recast the libretto, not only to suit Gluck's artistic preferences, but also to accommodate pre-existing music that Gluck borrowed, both from himself and from other composers, when composing the opera.
The Marriage of Figaro
The opera was the first of three collaborations between Mozart and Da Ponte; their later collaborations were "Don Giovanni" and "Così fan tutte". It was Mozart who originally selected Beaumarchais's play and brought it to Da Ponte, who turned it into a libretto in six weeks, rewriting it in poetic Italian and removing all of the original's political references. In particular, Da Ponte replaced Figaro's climactic speech against inherited nobility with an equally angry aria against unfaithful wives. Contrary to the popular myth, the libretto was approved by the Emperor before any music was written by Mozart.
Fantasy on Themes from Mozart's Figaro and Don Giovanni
The Fantasy on Themes from Mozart's "Figaro" and "Don Giovanni (German: Fantasie über Themen aus Mozarts "Figaro" und "Don Giovanni), S.697, is an operatic paraphrase for solo piano by Franz Liszt, left as an unfinished manuscript upon his death, but completed by the pianist Leslie Howard and published in 1997. It has also been referred to as the "Figaro/Don Giovanni Fantasy" and is based on music from Mozart's operas "The Marriage of Figaro" and "Don Giovanni". Liszt composed the work by the end of 1842 or early 1843, as he performed it at the latest in Berlin on 11 January 1843.
The Marriage of Figaro
In his 1991 opera, "The Ghosts of Versailles", which includes elements of Beaumarchais's third "Figaro" play ("La Mère coupable") and in which the main characters of "The Marriage of Figaro" also appear, John Corigliano quotes Mozart's opera, especially the overture, several times.Notes
Leonora (opera)
Leonora, ossia L’amore coniugale ("Leonora or Conjugal Love") is an opera (specifically a "dramma semiserio") in two acts by the Italian composer Ferdinando Paer. The libretto, by Giovanni Schmidt, is based on "Léonore ou L’Amour conjugal" (1794) by Jean-Nicolas Bouilly, which was also the source of Beethoven's "Fidelio". Beethoven himself owned a score of Paer's opera and it is believed to have had some influence on his work. "Leonora" was first performed at the Kleines Kurfürstliches Theater, Dresden on 3 October 1804 with the composer's wife singing the title role.
Le mariage aux lanternes
Le mariage aux lanternes ("The Wedding by Lantern-Light)" is an opérette in one act by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Michel Carré and Léon Battu.
The Marriage of Figaro (play)
The Marriage of Figaro ( ("The Mad Day, or The Marriage of Figaro")) is a comedy in five acts, written in 1778 by Pierre Beaumarchais. This play is the second in the Figaro trilogy, preceded by "The Barber of Seville" and followed by "The Guilty Mother".
Figaro chain
The name of the chain was widely used by Italian chainmakers inspired by the operas "The Barber of Seville" (by Gioachino Rossini) and "The Marriage of Figaro" (by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart). These operas were based on the plays "The Barber of Seville" and "The Marriage of Figaro" by Pierre Beaumarchais.
Mozart and dance
"The Marriage of Figaro" (1786) includes a crucial dance scene in which Susanna passes a feigned love note to Count Almaviva during a fandango. The dance scene was one resisted by the theatrical management at the premiere, and Mozart and his librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte prevailed only with difficulty in including it.
The Marriage of Figaro
Lorenzo Da Ponte wrote a preface to the first published version of the libretto, in which he boldly claimed that he and Mozart had created a new form of music drama:
In spite ... of every effort ... to be brief, the opera will not be one of the shortest to have appeared on our stage, for which we hope sufficient excuse will be found in the variety of threads from which the action of this play "[i.e. Beaumarchais's]" is woven, the vastness and grandeur of the same, the multiplicity of the musical numbers that had to be made in order not to leave the actors too long unemployed, to diminish the vexation and monotony of long recitatives, and to express with varied colours the various emotions that occur, but above all in our desire to offer as it were a new kind of spectacle to a public of so refined a taste and understanding.
Marie Antoinette
On 27 April 1784, Beaumarchais's play "The Marriage of Figaro" premiered in Paris. Initially banned by the king due to its negative portrayal of the nobility, the play was finally allowed to be publicly performed because of the queen's support and its overwhelming popularity at court, where secret readings of it had been given by Marie Antoinette. The play was a disaster for the image of the monarchy and aristocracy. It inspired Mozart's "Le nozze di Figaro", which premiered in Vienna on 1 May 1786.
The Marriage of Figaro (1920 film)
The Marriage of Figaro (German:Figaros Hochzeit) is a 1920 German silent historical film directed by Max Mack and starring Alexander Moissi, Hella Moja and Eduard von Winterstein.
Giuseppe Taddei
Taddei left many recordings, notably as Figaro in "The Marriage of Figaro" and Leporello in "Don Giovanni" in the Carlo Maria Giulini renditions, as Macbeth, opposite Birgit Nilsson, in "Macbeth", conducted by Thomas Schippers, and as Scarpia in "Tosca" and as Falstaff in "Falstaff", both conducted by Herbert von Karajan.
The Marriage of Figaro
"The Marriage of Figaro" continues the plot of "The Barber of Seville" several years later, and recounts a single "day of madness" () in the palace of Count Almaviva near Seville, Spain. Rosina is now the Countess; Dr. Bartolo is seeking revenge against Figaro for thwarting his plans to marry Rosina himself; and Count Almaviva has degenerated from the romantic youth of "Barber" into a scheming, bullying, skirt-chasing baritone. Having gratefully given Figaro a job as head of his servant-staff, he is now persistently trying to exercise his "droit du seigneur" – his right to bed a servant girl on her wedding night – with Figaro's bride-to-be, Susanna, who is the Countess's maid. He keeps finding excuses to delay the civil part of the wedding of his two servants, which is arranged for this very day. Figaro, Susanna, and the Countess conspire to embarrass the Count and expose his scheming. He retaliates by trying to compel Figaro legally to marry a woman old enough to be his mother, but it turns out at the last minute that she really is his mother. Through Figaro's and Susanna's clever manipulations, the Count's love for his Countess is finally restored.
Giovacchino Forzano
He studied medicine before embarking on a brief career as an operatic baritone. He then began studying law and, after finishing his diploma, became a freelance journalist, contributing regularly to several of Italy’s major newspapers. In 1914 he met and befriended Giacomo Puccini who asked him to write the librettos for his "Il trittico", a collection of three one-act operas. Forzano agreed to write the librettos for two of the works, "Suor Angelica" and "Gianni Schicchi", but declined "Il tabarro" saying that he preferred to create his own plots (Giuseppe Adami wrote the libretto for "Il tabarro"). "Il trittico" premiered at the Metropolitan Opera on 14 December 1918 to high acclaim. With the success of "Il trittico", Forzano was soon approached by other composers to provide librettos, including Alberto Franchetti, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, Mario Peragallo, 
Umberto Giordano, and Pietro Mascagni.
Sergio Trujillo
For opera Trujillo has choreographed "The Marriage of Figaro" for Los Angeles Opera and "Salome" for the New York City Opera.
Der Graf von Luxemburg
Like "The Merry Widow", "Der Graf von Luxemburg " deals with the themes of how the promise of wealth affects love and marriage, and the contrast between the gaiety of Parisian society and Slavic seriousness. The libretto was written by Alfred Maria Willner, Robert Bodanzky and Leo Stein. Stein had previously worked with Lehár on his 1904 "Der Göttergatte", and Bodanzky had co-authored the librettos for both "Peter und Paul reisen ins Schlaraffenland" and "Mitislaw der Moderne". The libretto for "Der Graf von Luxemburg" was not completely new. It was a re-working of the one written by Alfred Willner and Bernhard Buchbinder twelve years earlier for Johann Strauss' unsuccessful operetta "Die Göttin der Vernunft" ("The Goddess of Reason").
The Abduction of Figaro
The Abduction of Figaro is a comic opera, described as "A Simply Grand Opera by P. D. Q. Bach," which is actually the work of composer Peter Schickele. It is a parody of opera in general, and the title is a play on two operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: "The Abduction from the Seraglio" and "The Marriage of Figaro". Those two operas, "Così fan tutte", and "Don Giovanni", as well as Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Pirates of Penzance" are among the core inspirations for the piece.
Giovacchino Forzano
Giovacchino Forzano (; 19 November 1884 – 28 October 1970) was an Italian playwright, librettist, stage director, and film director. A resourceful writer, he authored numerous popular plays and produced opera librettos for most of the major Italian composers of the early twentieth century, including the librettos for Giacomo Puccini's "Suor Angelica" and "Gianni Schicchi".
The Marriage of Figaro
Motivated by jealousy, Figaro tells Bartolo and Basilio to come to his aid when he gives the signal. Basilio comments on Figaro's foolishness and claims he was once as frivolous as Figaro was. He tells a tale of how he was given common sense by "Donna Flemma" ("Dame Prudence") and learned the importance of not crossing powerful people. (aria: "In quegli anni" – "In those years"). They exit, leaving Figaro alone. Figaro muses bitterly on the inconstancy of women (recitative and aria: "Tutto è disposto ... Aprite un po' quegli occhi" – "Everything is ready ... Open those eyes a little"). Susanna and the Countess arrive, each dressed in the other's clothes. Marcellina is with them, having informed Susanna of Figaro's suspicions and plans. After they discuss the plan, Marcellina and the Countess leave, and Susanna teases Figaro by singing a love song to her beloved within Figaro's hearing (aria: "Deh vieni, non tardar" – "Oh come, don't delay"). Figaro is hiding behind a bush and, thinking the song is for the Count, becomes increasingly jealous.
Michel Carré
He went to Paris in 1840 intending to become a painter but took up writing instead. He wrote verse and plays before turning to writing libretti. He wrote the text for Charles Gounod's "Mireille" (1864) on his own, and collaborated with Eugène Cormon on Bizet's "Les pêcheurs de perles". However, the majority of his libretti were completed in tandem with Jules Barbier, with whom he wrote the libretti for numerous operas, including Camille Saint-Saëns's "Le timbre d'argent" (libretto written in 1864, first performed in 1877), Gounod's "Faust" (1859), "Roméo et Juliette" (1867), and Offenbach's "Les contes d'Hoffmann" (1881). As with the other libretti by Barbier and himself, these were adaptations of existing literary masterworks.
The Marriage of Figaro
The Hungarian poet Ferenc Kazinczy was in the audience for a May performance, and later remembered the powerful impression the work made on him:
[Nancy] Storace [see below], the beautiful singer, enchanted eye, ear, and soul. – Mozart directed the orchestra, playing his fortepiano; the joy which this music causes is so far removed from all sensuality that one cannot speak of it. Where could words be found that are worthy to describe such joy?
Francesco Barbaro (politician)
He wrote a treatise on marriage, "De re uxoria," in 1415 to celebrate the marriage of Lorenzo de' Medici and Ginevra Cavalcanti. It was inspired by ancient Latin and Greek sources, and he wrote it in just 25 days. In 1513, the treatise was published in Paris by Badius Ascensius, a transcription having been made in Verona by André Tiraqueau at the house of Guarino Veronese. A French translation was made by Martin du Pin in 1537. The work was translated into Italian by Alberto Lollio in 1548. The Latin version was reprinted in Paris in 1560 and again in Amsterdam in 1639. In 1667, another French translation was made by Claude Joly under the title "L'Etat du Marriage". Another Italian translation was made in 1785 as "A Scelta Della Moglie".
La cambiale di matrimonio
La cambiale di matrimonio (; The Bill of Marriage or The Marriage Contract) is a one-act operatic farsa comica by Gioachino Rossini to a libretto by Gaetano Rossi. The libretto was based on the play by Camillo Federici (1791) and a previous libretto by Giuseppe Checcherini for Carlo Coccia's 1807 opera, "Il matrimonio per lettera di cambio". The opera debuted on 3 November 1810 at the Teatro San Moisè in Venice. It had a run of thirteen performances at Teatro San Moisè.
William James Royce
Royce's most recent production was his adaptation of the classic Pierre Beaumarchais comedy "The Marriage de Figaro" entitled, "One Mad Day!" which premiered at the Norton Clapp Theatre in 2008. The adaptation saw numerous changes to the original five-act play, altering its structure to three acts, updating the dialogue and presenting the new production as a "screwball comedy." In classic screwball comedy tradition, Suzanne has been made the central character. Although Figaro is still in the employ of the Count, he has been promoted from valet to Jester. Perhaps the biggest change comes in the third act when Figaro's Gypsy family arrive for "Figgie's" wedding!
Die Liebe der Danae
Die Liebe der Danae ("The Love of Danae") is an opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to a February 1937 German libretto by Joseph Gregor, based on an outline written in 1920, "Danae, or The Marriage of Convenience", by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Strauss worked on the score in 1937, 1938 and into 1939, although he was pre-occupied with completing "Daphne", developing ideas with Gregor and finally replacing him as librettist for "Capriccio", and then succumbed to illness, which caused postponement for several months into 1940. The opera was finally finished on 28 June 1940.
Libretto
By the 20th century some librettists became recognised as part of famous collaborations, as with Gilbert and Sullivan or Rodgers and Hammerstein. Today the composer (past or present) of the musical score to an opera or operetta is usually given top billing for the completed work, and the writer of the lyrics relegated to second place or a mere footnote, a notable exception being Gertrude Stein, who received top billing for "Four Saints in Three Acts". Another exception was Alberto Franchetti's 1906 opera "La figlia di Iorio" which was a close rendering of a highly successful play by its librettist, Gabriele D'Annunzio, a celebrated Italian poet, novelist and dramatist of the day. In some cases, the operatic adaptation has become more famous than the literary text on which it was based, as with Claude Debussy's "Pelléas et Mélisande" after a play by Maurice Maeterlinck.
Gli equivoci
Following the success of his libretto for "The Marriage of Figaro", Da Ponte was asked by Storace to provide for him a libretto based on Shakespeare. Da Ponte compressed Shakespeare's plot into two acts, but retained nearly all the key elements. "Gli equivoci" was the second of Storace's operas to be performed at the Burgtheater.
La fille du tambour-major
La fille du tambour-major ("The Drum-Major's Daughter") is an opéra comique, or operetta, in three acts by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Alfred Duru and Henri Charles Chivot (who often wrote libretti for Charles Lecocq).
Gustav Mahler
Early in 1902 Mahler met Alfred Roller, an artist and designer associated with the Vienna Secession movement. A year later, Mahler appointed him chief stage designer to the Hofoper, where Roller's debut was a new production of "Tristan und Isolde". The collaboration between Mahler and Roller created more than 20 celebrated productions of, among other operas, Beethoven's "Fidelio", Gluck's "Iphigénie en Aulide" and Mozart's "Le nozze di Figaro". In the "Figaro" production, Mahler offended some purists by adding and composing a short recitative scene to Act III.
Mozart, l'opéra rock
After the success of "The Abduction from the Seraglio", Wolfgang enjoys a celebration with his friends and wife where they mock Salieri and Rosenberg's attempts at upsetting the show. It is here that Wolfgang is approached by the well-known librettist, Lorenzo Da Ponte, who expresses interest in working with him. He presents Wolfgang with the work he had in mind, but Wolfgang refuses, instead proposing "The Marriage of Figaro", a controversial drama by Beaumarchais. Da Ponte initially refuses, wary of the trouble it could cause, but is swayed when Wolfgang explains that he associates not with radical politics, but the triumph of Figaro as a free man. Da Ponte agrees, and they begin work.
The Marriage of Figaro (play)
Figaro and Suzanne talk before the wedding, and Figaro tells Suzanne that if the Count still thinks she is going to meet him in the garden later, she should just let him stand there waiting all night. Suzanne promises, but the Countess grows upset when she hears this news, thinking that Suzanne is in the Count's pocket and is wishing she had kept their rendezvous a secret. As she leaves, Suzanne falls to her knees, and agrees to go through with the plan to trick the Count. Together they write a note to him entitled "A New Song on the Breeze" (a reference to the Countess's old habit of communicating with the Count through sheet music dropped from her window), which tells him that she will meet him under the chestnut trees. The Countess lends Suzanne a pin from her dress to seal the letter, but as she does so, the ribbon from Chérubin falls out of the top of her dress. At that moment, Fanchette enters with Chérubin disguised as a girl, a shepherdess, and girls from the town to give the Countess flowers. As thanks, the Countess kisses Chérubin on the forehead. Antonio and the Count enter—Antonio knows Chérubin is disguised because they dressed him at his daughter's (Fanchette's) house. The Countess admits to hiding Chérubin in her room earlier and the Count is about to punish him. Fanchette suddenly admits that she and the Count have been having an affair, and that, since he has promised he will give her anything she desires, he must not punish Chérubin but give him to her as a husband. Later, the wedding is interrupted by Bazile, who had wished to marry Marceline himself; but once he learns that Figaro is her son he is so horrified that he abandons his plans. Later, Figaro witnesses the Count opening the letter from Suzanne, but thinks nothing of it. After the ceremony, he notices Fanchette looking upset, and discovers that the cause is her having lost the pin that was used to seal the letter, which the Count had told her to give back to Suzanne. Figaro nearly faints at the news, believing Suzanne's secret communication means that she has been unfaithful and, restraining tears, he announces to Marceline that he is going to seek vengeance on both the Count and Suzanne.
I due Figaro (Mercadante)
I due Figaro, o sia Il soggetto di una commedia is an opera (melodramma buffo) in two acts by Saverio Mercadante to a libretto by Felice Romani based on "Les deux Figaro" by Honoré-Antoine Richaud Martelly. The opera was composed in 1826 but its production was delayed for some years due to censors' intervention.
Falstaff (opera)
For a comic subject Verdi considered Cervantes's "Don Quixote" and plays by Goldoni, Molière and Labiche, but found none of them wholly suitable. The singer Victor Maurel sent him a French libretto based on Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew". Verdi liked it, but replied that "to deal with it properly you need a Rossini or a Donizetti". Following the success of "Otello" in 1887 he commented, "After having relentlessly massacred so many heroes and heroines, I have at last the right to laugh a little." He confided his ambition to the librettist of "Otello", Arrigo Boito. Boito said nothing at the time, but he secretly began work on a libretto based on "The Merry Wives of Windsor" with additional material taken from "Henry IV", parts 1 and 2. Many composers had set the play to music, with little success, among them Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf (1796), Antonio Salieri (1799), Michael William Balfe (1835) and Adolphe Adam (1856). The first version to secure a place in the operatic repertoire was Otto Nicolai's "The Merry Wives of Windsor" in 1849, but its success was largely confined to German opera houses.
Will You Marry Me? (opera)
Will You Marry Me? is an opera in one act by composer Hugo Weisgall. The English language libretto by Charles Kondek is based on the play "A Marriage Has Been Arranged" by Alfred Sutro. The opera's premiere was given by the Opera Ensemble of New York (OENY) on March 8, 1989 in New York City in conjunction with performances of two other works by Weisgall: "The Stronger" and "The Golden Peacock". The OENY commissioned the two character opera and the premiere cast included soprano Andrea Broido as "She" and baritone David Trombley as "He".
Le pescatrici
"Le pescatrici" was the second of the three Goldoni libretti that Haydn set to music — the other two were "Lo speziale" (1768) and "Il mondo della luna" (1777). However, Haydn was not the first to use Goldoni's libretto. It had previously been used for operas by Ferdinando Bertoni (Venice, 1751) and Niccolò Piccinni (Rome 1766) and was later used by Florian Leopold Gassmann (Vienna, 1771). Haydn composed "Le pescatrici" as part of the lavish celebrations for the marriage of Prince Nikolaus Esterházy's niece, Maria Theresa Countess Lamberg to Alois Count Poggi at Eszterháza where the opera was first performed on 16 September 1770. The roles of Lesbina and Frisellino were first sung by Maria Magdalena Spangler and her husband, Carl Friberth, two prominent court singers at Eszterháza. Carl Friberth may also have had a hand in adapting Goldoni's libretto for Haydn.
Fiesque
Fiesque ("The Genoese Conspiracy") is an opera by the French composer Édouard Lalo. The libretto, by Charles Beauquier, is based on Schiller's 1784 play, "Die Verschwörung des Fiesco zu Genua", an account of the conspiracy in 1547 led by Fiesque against the ruling Doria family.
The Marriage of Figaro (1960 film)
The Marriage of Figaro is a 1960 Australian TV film. It was a filmed version of Mozart's the opera, sung in English.Marie Tyso had appeared in several other operas for the ABC. She was used to doing them live but this one involved pre-recorded music. "It was a much better way to do it," she said. "Of course, we now had to mime during the performance. We did the dialogue live. Alan Burke was the producer – he was wonderful to work with."
Domenico Mombelli
Domenico Mombelli (13 January 1755 – 15 March 1835) was an Italian operatic tenor and composer. Born in Villanova Monferrato, Mombelli was the head of a distinguished family of singers and musicians that included his first wife, Luisa Laschi who created the role of Countess Almaviva in "The Marriage of Figaro"; his second wife, Vincenza Viganò-Mombelli who wrote the libretto for Rossini's "Demetrio e Polibio"; and his daughters Ester and Anna, both of whom had successful careers as opera singers. He was also the founder and head of a travelling opera company which performed in Lisbon, Padua, and Milan from 1806 to 1811. Amongst his compositions were the opera "Didone" to a libretto by Metastasio, several oratorios, and three collections of arias for voice and piano. Mombelli spent his final years teaching singing in Bologna where he died at the age of 80.
Josepha Duschek
In 1787, "The Marriage of Figaro" was mounted in a Prague production. A number of Prague music lovers invited Mozart to come to Prague and hear the production; the "Grove Dictionary" suggested that Duschek and her husband František were among them.
Frau Margot
Frau Margot is an opera in 3 acts by composer Thomas Pasatieri. The work uses an English language libretto by Frank Corsaro which is based on Corsaro's play "Lyric Suite". The opera's premiere was presented by the Fort Worth Opera on June 2, 2007. Corsaro directed the production which used sets by Alison Nalder and costumes by Steven Bryant. A recording of this production was released on CD by Albany Records.
The Marriage of Figaro
The opera was produced in Prague starting in December 1786 by the Pasquale Bondini company. This production was a tremendous success; the newspaper "Prager Oberpostamtszeitung" called the work "a masterpiece", and said "no piece (for everyone here asserts) has ever caused such a sensation." Local music lovers paid for Mozart to visit Prague and hear the production; he listened on 17 January 1787, and conducted it himself on the 22nd. The success of the Prague production led to the commissioning of the next Mozart/Da Ponte opera, "Don Giovanni", premiered in Prague in 1787; see Mozart and Prague.
Luigi Zamboni
The part of Figaro in "The Barber of Seville" was written for Zamboni by Gioachino Rossini, who was also a family friend. Zamboni created the role in Rome on 20 February 1816.
Émile de Najac
With Paul Ferrier he wrote the libretto for Lecocq’s "La vie mondaine" (1885) and with Paul Burani the libretto for Emmanuel Chabrier’s "Le roi malgré lui" (1887).
Figaro lässt sich scheiden
The work is a sequel to the Figaro plays of Pierre Beaumarchais. It follows the fortunes of some of the characters of "The Marriage of Figaro" during the period of the French Revolution. It premiered on 28 June 1963 at the Hamburg State Opera, when it was conducted by Leopold Ludwig. It was commissioned by Rolf Liebermann, then-director of the "Staatsoper" and also a composer.
The Marriage of Figaro
In 1819, Henry R. Bishop wrote an adaptation of the opera in English, translating from Beaumarchais's play and re-using some of Mozart's music, while adding some of his own.
Robert de Flers
In 1901 de Flers married Geneviève Sardou, the daughter of Victorien Sardou. He continued to be active writing librettos. His third opera libretto, "Les travaux d'Hercule" (1901), marked his first collaboration with fellow playwright Gaston Arman de Caillavet and composer Claude Terrasse. Most of his remaining librettos were written with Caillavet, often for Terrasse who was their most frequent musical collaborator. Other composers for which the two men wrote librettos include André Messager, and Gabriel Pierné. The two men also wrote a French translation of Franz Lehár's "The Merry Widow" in 1905 which was used throughout France during the first half of the 20th century. Their last opera collaboration was for Alfred Bruneau's 1923 opera "Le jardin du paradis". De Flers also wrote the librettos for Reynaldo Hahn's "Ciboulette" (1923) with playwright Francis de Croisset, and Joseph Szulc's "Le petit choc" (1923).
Daniel Schiebeler
Schiebeler wrote several librettos for operas and oratorios, such as "Basilio und Quiteria" based on an episode form Cervantes' "Don Quixote". He was a student, age 18, when he selected the scene of the hero and his squire taking part in the wedding of Camacho. Based on his extensive studies of Spanish literature, he was able to work from the original Spanish text. His libretto is subtitled "Singgedicht für das Theater" ("dramatic libretto for the theater") and has detailed directions for a performance. Schiebeler offered the libretto to Georg Philipp Telemann, who set it as an opera, "Don Quichotte auf der Hochzeit des Comacho", not without making several practical changes to the libretto. The opera premiered on 5 November 1761 in the concert hall "Auf dem Kamp" in Hamburg, because Hamburg had no working opera house at the time. Schiebeler wrote the libretto for Johann Adam Hiller's "Lisuart und Dariolette oder Die Frage und die Antwort", which premiered in a two-act version on 25 November 1766 at the Theater am Rannstädter Thore in Leipzig. Schiebeler wrote the libretto for the dramatic oratorio "Die Israeliten in der Wüste", set to music by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, which premiered on 1 November 1769 in Hamburg.
Les pêcheurs de perles
The libretto was written by Eugène Cormon and Michel Carré. Cormon was a prolific author of libretti and straight drama, usually in collaboration with other writers. In his career he wrote or co-wrote at least 135 works, of which ', set to music by Aimé Maillart, was perhaps the most successful. Carré, who had initially trained as a painter, had worked with Jules Barbier on Gounod's opera "Faust" and had co-written the play ', which became the basis of the libretto for Offenbach's opera "The Tales of Hoffmann". Before ' Cormon and Carré had previously written a libretto for Maillart on a similar theme, ', which had been performed in 1860; they had originally planned to set their new story in Mexico before changing its location to Ceylon.
Jonathan Miller
Miller held a research fellowship in the history of medicine at University College, London from 1970 to 1973. In 1974, he also started directing and producing operas for Kent Opera and Glyndebourne, followed by a new production of "The Marriage of Figaro" for English National Opera in 1978. Miller has become one of the world's leading opera directors with classic productions being "Rigoletto" (in 1975 and 1982) and the operetta "The Mikado" (in 1987).
Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor is a "dramma tragico" (tragic opera) in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian-language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel "The Bride of Lammermoor".
Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger
After the wedding of Marie de' Medici and Henry IV of France in 1600, Buonarroti published a "Description" of the banquet and was soon commissioned to write court entertainments: "Il natal d'Ercole" (1605), "Il giudizio di Paride" (for the wedding of Cosimo II and Maria Maddalena,1608, music by Jacopo Peri), "La Tancia" (1611) and "Balletto della Cortesia" (1614). In 1612 he began construction of a gallery (now the Casa Buonarroti) on the Via Ghibellino dedicated to his famous relative and commissioned numerous artists to paint murals . During this period his name became linked with Francesca Caccini, who composed the music for "La Tancia", the "Balletto" and "La Fiera"
Hanne Fischer
Hanne Fischer (born 3 March 1966 in Copenhagen) is a Danish operatic mezzo-soprano. In 1993 she made her professional opera debut at the Royal Danish Theatre as Cherubino in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro". From 1993-1997 she was a member of the Kiel Opera House, and since 1997 she has been a member of the Royal Danish Theatre. She has appeared as a guest artist with numerous theatres, including the Berlin State Opera, the Hamburg State Opera, Theater Bonn, and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.