Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro

Following several widely lauded runs across Europe, the celebrated Mozart / Da Ponte trilogy by stage director Ivan Alexandre and conductor Marc Minkowski makes a triumphant return to the exquisite Royal Opera of the Château de Versailles in 2023, and you can watch it in full on medici.tv! Backed by Minkowski's marvelous Musiciens du Louvre, an expert cast breathes new life into the most famous operatic cycle this side of Wagner: Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte — the three masterpieces created by Mozart and librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, all full of sparkling wit and instantly memorable arias and all counted among the crown jewels of the opera.

Composed in 1786, the quintessential comic opera Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) picks up a few years after Rossini's The Barber of Seville, following the (mis)adventures of the lascivious Count Almaviva (Thomas Dolié) as he tries to pull one over on his wife Rosina (Ana Maria Labin), his valet Figaro (Robert Gleadow, whose "agile performance and delightfully expressive singing" in all three operas make him the "trump card" of this trilogy, according to none other than Le Figaro), and Figaro's fiancée Susanna (Angela Brower), object of the Count's unwanted advances…

Highlights (to name just a few among many!) include the world-famous Overture; Figaro's irresisibly catchy first-act aria "Non più andrai"; Act II aria "Voi, che sapete" by the womanizing Cherubino (one of the great trouser roles, performed here by Miriam Albano); Rosina's Act II lament "Dove sono"; and the duet "Sull'aria … che soave zeffiretto" from Act III, used to poignant effect in The Shawshank Redemption.

Photo © Paco Amate / Liceu Opera Barcelona