Le nozze di Figaro

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
Comic opera in four acts
In Italian with German surtitles.
Libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on “La folle journée ou Le mariage de Figaro”
by Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais
First performed in Vienna in 1786

With “The Marriage of Figaro”, Mozart opened his trio of legendary master operas, all of which the composer was to write based on textbooks by the Italian composer Lorenzo Da Ponte. The piece presents a timeless love story, a playful comedy, a biting social satire – and yet all these descriptions fall short if they want to do justice to the panopticon of stylistic and sensual experiences that Mozart unleashes in his music. For “Figaro” is one thing above all: a work of upheaval, a piece of the stormy urge for personal recognition and thus at the same time a timeless symbol of the rebellion of the individual against the establishment.

PREMIERE: 6 September 2020