Metropolitan Opera Preview: Le Nozze Di Figaro

Mozart's comedy of sex and class struggle returns to the Met stage.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Look, this is just a good opera. In fact it's one of the best. Mozart's Figaro is a four hour feast of the composer's best and most memorable tunes, and a story that features one memorable day in a very peculiar household. This run offers a new cast in the Met's production by Sir Richard Eyre, which opened the 2014 season.
The plot of Figaro is complex. The title character, valet (and former barber) to the Count Almaviva wants to marry the housemaid Susanna. However, the Count (who has recently rescinded the droit de seignur that allowed him first night privileges with any new bride) wants to have his way with Susanna before the wedding anyway. In the middle of all this is an adulturous romance between the Countess and Cherubino, the excessively virile young page who continually finds himself in the most awkward situations, and a plot by Bartolo and Marcellina to take revenge on Figaro for his actions in the earlier Barber of Seville.
Figaro is a long opera but it is packed end to end with Mozart's most inspired writing for the voice. From the title character's challenging "Se vuol bailare" and "Non più andrai" to the twenty minute add-a-voice ensemble that ends the second act, this score never fails to please the ear. The finale of Act IV ("Contessa perdono") is the loveliest part, a moving plea for reconciliation between the major characters as the comic doings finally come to a serious consequence..
This 2014 production by Sir Richard Eyre features Mikhail Petrenko singing the title role at the Met for the first time. The wily valet's schemes inspire the everyman to rise up against his aristocratic oppressors. Whether leaping out of windows or helping his fiancée Susanna avoid the unwanted attentions of Count Almaviva, (Luca Pisaroni) Figaro is an operatic trickster with great music to sing.
The real heroes of this show, however are women. The unhappy, tormented Countess Almaviva and Susanna (who has more music to sing than any other character in the opera) are an odd pairing but their Act III duet "Sull'aria is the gorgeous heart of their relationship. Le Nozze di Figaro returns to the Met on February 25, 2016.

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