‘The Marriage of Figaro’ The librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte wrote that Le nozze di Figaro offered ‘a new kind of spectacle … to a public of such assured taste and refined understanding’, and it would be fair to say that after Figaro’s premiere on 1 May 1786, opera buffa was never quite the same again. There were precedents, of ...
Composed in 1787 and triumphantly premiered in Prague on 29 October that year, Don Giovanni reworks the old legend of the serial seducer, drawing on the Spanish play by Tirso de Molina (1630) and Molière’s Don Juan (1665). The opera revolves around the tensions of class and sex that were so central to Figaro. Ensembles and propulsive ‘chain’ finales ...
below her window with a group of musicians and serenades her. She does not come to the window, so the musicians, receiving payment from the count, depart. Figaro, the town barber, approaches, boasting of his skills and importance. The count offers him a reward, if he will assist the count in gaining entry to ...
St Petersburg Libretto by Giuseppe Petrosellini, after Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais Act I Count Almaviva stands below the window of Rosina, ward of Dr Bartolo, serenading her. Figaro, a self-important barber, arrives. Rosina appears at the window and drops a note for the Count, asking him to introduce himself in song. Figaro tells the Count ...
b. 1944 New Zealand soprano Having come to England to study at the London Opera Centre, Te Kanawa made her Covent Garden debut as the Countess (Mozart’s Figaro) in 1971. Appearances quickly followed at Glyndebourne, the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala and the Salzburg Festival. She became increasingly associated with the music of Richard Strauss, especially the roles ...
1922–92 Welsh baritone Evans joined the Covent Garden company in 1948, singing Mozart’s Figaro in his second season. He sang at Glyndebourne 1950–61, and made his debut at La Scala in 1960. Appearances in America included Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger (Chicago, 1959) and Verdi’s Falstaff (Metropolitan Opera, 1964). Renowned for many years in Mozart roles, in ...
Martín y Soler (1754–1806) and Salieri in which she took part. However, Mozart was not particularly impressed when she sang Susanna in a Vienna revival of Le nozze di Figaro in 1789: she failed to perform two arias he had specially written for her in the required ‘artless manner’. Ferrarese was a difficult woman, described even by the faithful ...
b. 1971, Russian Soprano Anna Netrebko made her operatic stage debut as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro at the Marinsky Theatre, conducted by Valery Gergiev. Netrebko’s repertoire includes a number of bel canto and verismo operas, and she thrives in roles that require great vocal and dramatic commitment; her fearless and flamboyant Violetta (La traviata) being a ...
won the Lieder prize in the Cardiff Singer of the World competition. He made his debut in 1990 as Guglielmo (Così fan tutte) for Welsh National Opera. He has performed Figaro worldwide. He sang Verdi’s Falstaff at the reopening of Covent Garden in 1999. His recordings include Figaro, Strauss’s Jokanaan, both Don Giovanni and Leporello, and discs of ...
World Lieder prize in 1989. In 1990 he made his operatic debut as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte at Welsh National Opera, before bursting onto the London scene as Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro with English National Opera in 1991. By 1993 he had signed a contract with Deutsche Grammophon and debuted with the Vienna State Opera. The Met ...
1924–2014 Italian tenor Bergonzi studied as a baritone, singing Rossini’s Figaro in Lecce in 1948 before retraining as a tenor. His second debut was as Giordano’s Andrea Chénier in 1951. He sang regularly at the Metropolitan Opera 1956–88. At Covent Garden, where he made his debut in 1962, he sang many roles including Verdi’s Alvaro and Manrico (conducted ...
several new works, including Berg’s Wozzeck. He spent World War II in South America and conducted regularly at Covent Garden 1950–53. He made fine recordings of Le nozze di Figaro and Der Rosenkavalier. Introduction | Modern Era | Classical Personalities | Serge Koussevitzky | Modern Era | Classical ...
under Toscanini. His debut at the Met in 1926 began a run of 22 consecutive seasons as a leading bass. He sang all the bass roles, Don Giovanni and Figaro being among his most memorable portrayals and earning him the title of ‘opera’s sex symbol’. After leaving the Met aged 56, Pinza began a career in musicals, operettas ...
c. 1745–1824, Italian Francesco Benucci, an Italian bass, created the role of Figaro in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro in 1786. Benucci spent the first 13 years of his career as an opera singer (1769–82) in Italy, before joining the renowned Italian company in Vienna. Benucci remained in Vienna until 1795, with a short break in ...
(Ga-bre-el’ Fô-ra’) 1845–1924 French composer Fauré, a pre-eminent master of French song, studied with Saint-Saëns in 1866, and succeeded him as as chief organist at the Madeleine in 1896. Fauré was appointed Director at the Paris Conservatoire (1905–20) and also served as critic for Le Figaro. He was thus a powerful influence on twentieth-century French music, especially through ...
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