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The Count is a philandering husband who, nonetheless, demands fidelity from his wife. Marcellina is an older woman who has one last chance at finding happiness with a man…Figaro. “If I were your woman,” sings Gladys Knight in a contemporary prose. Rosina is a noble woman who is losing her husband and schemes with a commoner to get him back; Figaro, in love with his bride, and frightfully possessive, lashes out at women for their fickleness; and Cherubino, a pubescent teenage boy in love with every woman he sees, shamelessly chases them with two gorgeous arias to sing. The issue of class is dealt with in two arias, Figaro’s first act aria, “Se Voul Ballare,” where Figaro announces that he intends to upset his lord’s plans to seduce his fiancé Susanna, and the Rosina’s lament in act three that she, a countess, has been reduced to having to rely on her servant to help her keep her husband.

The first act ends with Figaro’s aria, “Non Piu Andrai.” Figaro teases Cherubino who’s been after Susanna, Barbarina and the Countess and has been drafted to go to the army. Figaro gives him the most awful picture of war and life on the battlefield, with Cherubino in terror and the audience in stitches. This shows real talent on Mozart’s part.

Incidentally in the last act, the Countess and Susanna disguise themselves as each other. Susanna disguised as the Countess responds to Figaro’s feigned overtures, while the Count, thinking that he is coming to Susanna, discovers he’s been courting his disguised wife! The Count, exposed, asks forgiveness and is granted it. In a comic twist, Figaro discovers that Dr. Bartolo and Marcellina are his parents. Subsequently, Marcellina (obviously) releases Figaro from his obligation and marries Dr. Bartolo, thus legitimizing their son, Figaro. Cherubino is then united with Barbarina, the gardener’s daughter. Everyone is happy and the audience is satisfied and sated from clapping.

There is so much Mozart opera now, that it is hard to believe that after Mozart’s death, much of his music was not frequently performed. The “Mozart phenomenon” is post WWII. At the Met in New York City, there were Marriage-less decades. This was changed when many distinguished Mozart conductors were forced out of Europe by the Third Reich and brought their love of Mozart operas to the United States, where it was welcomed by such Met singers as Eleanor Steber, Ezio Pinza and Salvatore Boccalino. Societies started, Mozart festivals began, and The Marriage has thrived in that environment.

Meanwhile, there has never been a better time for Mozart’s operas, well-directed and brilliantly sung. Let us relish the time we are in. For those of us in love with Mozart and The Marriage of Figaro, it is a great time to be alive.

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photos by John Grigaitis