Class 5: Bringing Mozart's Lovers to Life

Handout Return to Index

5. Staging Mozart's Lovers. This class will be illustrated with clips from a single source: Sir David McVicar's 2006 production of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London. However, Figaro is a long opera with numerous plot complications that seemingly spring out of nowhere, involve secondary characters, and get resolved or discarded as the opera proceeds. So we shall show only those scenes that involve its four main characters: the Count and Countess Almaviva, and their servants Figaro and Susanna who are due to get married that very day. You might call it a Tale of Two Marriages, one of some years' standing but now on the rocks, the other brand new.

Roger in a FIGARO rehearsal However, the principal purpose of the class is to show the most basic decisions that a stage director needs to make with an opera that requires no updating or special pleading. His (or increasingly "her") work begins with reading the libretto and learning the score. The libretto outlines the story the production must tell, gives the lines the performers must sing or speak, and adds the stage directions envisioned by the original authors. The music suggests how these things are to be achieved: the timing of action or vocal delivery, and the emotion that lies behind it. Of course, good singers will do similar preparation and reach their own conclusions, but a lot is left to individual interpretation. Good directors, therefore, will work with the ideas of their performers wherever possible, but it is also their responsibility to ensure that all the various interpretations make a coherent whole and to devise a blocking (traffic pattern) that flows smoothly on the stage and makes sense to the audience.

The Marriage of Figaro is a contender for the most popular opera with the most complicated plot. Let's try to unravel that. The handout above contains a synopsis insofar as concerns the four principal characters, but the opera has twelve in all. To get some idea of how they all fit in, read the synopsis issued by the English National Opera; the same link gives access to various short excerpts, videos about the opera, and general FAQ. If you want to listen and watch rather than read, the best introduction I found is this 12-minute one with a wonderfully engaging young presenter who manages to do a lot more than just tell the story; highly recommended! There is also this 6-minute introduction put out by the Royal Opera House in conjunction with the production you are going to see; it is not really a coherent account of the plot, but the comments by the cast, conductor, and [associate] director of this 2026 revival are fascinating.

Or you could read my own verse translation of the opera. It should not take too long to read complete, but the passages I will play in class are to be found on pages 5–9, 53–56, 62–63, and 81–88 (references are to the sheets in the PDF, not those at the foot of the printed pages).

The script, videos, and images will be posted immediately after class.

Handout Class Script RB translation About the opera

Return to Index

VIDEO LINKS

There are many productions of The Marriage of Figaro available on YouTube, but they do not include the David McVicar version we watched in class. The cheapest way to buy the DVD is to go for the box set containing the Royal Opera House productions of Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute as well. Prices are around $25 used and $46 new, so even if you already have one of these three operas, this is a real bargain.

It is still possible to get a taste of the McVicar production, though. You will find below links to four trailers of different lengths and largely different content, a couple of discussions of the music featuring clips from this production, and two of the arias we heard in class: Figaro's "Se vuol ballare" and the Countess's "Dove sono." There are a few other excerpts out there if you look, but as we didn't see them in class I didn't list them. There is, however, an interview with a soprano, the late Taryn Fiebig, about her experience working with Sir David on a similar production in Australia.

For each of the four scenes shown in class (the openings of Acts I and III, the Act III aria of the Countess, and the end of Act IV), I have given links to the scene in three complete performances, all with English titles. The 1993 production by Jean-Louis Thamin at the Chatelet in Paris has very simple sets, but excellent musical qualities under John Eliot Gardiner, with Bryn Terfel as Figaro, Alison Hagley as Susanna, Hillevi Martinpelto as the Countess, and Rod Gilfry as the Count. Stephen Medcalf's production at Glyndebourne in 1994 is more fully staged and splendidly conducted by Bernard Haitink; it features Gerlald Finley (McVicar's Count) as Figaro, Alison Hagley again as Susanna, René Fleming as the Countess, and Andreas Schmidt as the Count. Finally, I threw in a 2018 production from the Royal College of Music: only conservatory students, but directed by a master, Sir Thomas Allen, in a low-budget but thoroughly satisfying traditional staging. Each of these videos can be watched complete simply by scrolling back to the beginning. rb.

THE McVICAR PRODUCTON
	Arias watched in class	* Figaro: "Se vuol balllare" (Erwin Schrott) * Countess: "Dove sono" (Dorothea Röschmann)
	Trailers (mostly different)	* 30 seconds * 30 seconds * 1 minute * 2 minutes
	About the production	* 2024 revival (mainly on the music) * 2026 revival (6 minutes, quite detailed)
	Working with McVicar	* Taryn Fiebig (production in Australia)
LINKS TO OTHER PRODUCTIONS
	Opening of Act I	* Paris 1993 (Bryn Terfel, Alison Hagley) * Glyndebourne 1994 (Gerald Finley, Alison Hagley) * Royal College of Music 2018 (production by Sir Thomas Allen)
	Opening of Act III	* Paris 1993 (Rod Gilfry, Alison Hagley) * Glyndebourne 1994 (Andreas Schmidt, Alison Hagley) * Royal College of Music 2018 (as above)
	Countess Act III aria	* Paris 1993 (Hillervi Martinpelto) * Glyndebourne 1994 (Renée Fleming) * Royal College of Music 2018 (as above)
	End of the opera	* Paris 1993 (as above) * Glyndebourne 1994 (as above) * Royal College of Music 2018 (as above)


IMAGES
The thumbnails below cover the slides shown in class, though there may be a few small discrepancies. Click the thumbnail to see a larger image. Click on the right or left of the larger picture to go forward or back, or outside it to close.