Le nozze di Figaro

Ramon Gener presents Le nozze di Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. With Marta Pazos as stage conductor.

First act of Le nozze di Figaro.

Second act of Le nozze di Figaro.

The interlude of Le nozze di Figaro with Ramon Gener, with Luca Pisaroni, Anna Prohaska and Marta Pazos.

Third act of Le nozze di Figaro.

Fourth act of Le nozze di Figaro.

Aftershow with Ramon Gener, Sara Blanch and the conductor Giovanni Antonini.

In his first aria, heard in Act I, Cherubino confides in Susanna that he is in love with every woman in the palace, especially the Countess. In his second aria, no less exquisite, his youthful impetuosity gives way to vulnerability as he becomes aware of his own inexperience. Though consumed by overwhelming emotions, he still does not know what true love is, and so he asks Susanna and the Countess to tell him what it feels like to be in love. This is one of the most sublime melodies not only in the opera, but in all of Mozart's output: a brief, fleeting moment, as ephemeral as a summer romance, yet one that lingers in the memory—and in the atmosphere of the drama—until the very end.

While awaiting Susanna's arrival, with whom she has devised a plan to expose her husband at the end of the opera, the Countess Almaviva reflects on the days when she was young and happy. In her first aria, at the beginning of Act II, she expressed her sorrow upon discovering the Count's intentions towards Susanna. Here, however, she experiences a different emotion: through a melody of exquisite tenderness and compassion, she takes refuge in an idealised past, laying the emotional foundations for her act of forgiveness at the opera's conclusion. The Countess's arias are slow and deeply introspective, and this final one is among those rare moments in the opera when it is impossible for the audience not to be deeply moved.

Count Almaviva has caught the pageboy Cherubino hiding in the room where he had been trying to seduce Susanna, and is determined to get rid of him by sending him off to war. Figaro, however, has no intention of letting the young man leave, as he needs him to carry out his plan for revenge. In this, Figaro's first aria—and the opera's most famous—Mozart combines an unforgettable melody with the brisk rhythm of a military march. Its impact is all the greater as it crowns the exhilarating finale of the first act, a whirlwind sequence in which arias, duets and choral numbers follow one another with irresistible momentum.