Opera Birmingham

by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
in Italian with English titles
Friday, March 19 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, March 21 at 2:30 p.m.
Wright Center, Samford University
Sung in Italian with projected English titles Buy Tickets

CAST:

(subject to change)

Susanna: Michelle Areyzaga
Countess: Susanna Phillips
Cherubino: Chandra Egger
Figaro: Jason Hardy
Count: Corey McKern
Bartolo: Steven Condy
Marcellina: Josepha Gayer
Basilio : Corey Trahan
Don Curzio: Elias Hendricks, III

Stage Director: John D. Jones
Conductor: Lester Seigel
The Opera Birmingham Chorus
The Alabama Symphony Orchestra

Listen

Dove sono 
Non piu andrai
Sextet 
Sull'aria 

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Opera Synopsis

ACT I

In a late eighteenth century country estate outside Seville, the valet learns from his betrothed, the maid Susanna, that their philandering employer, Count Almaviva, has designs on her. Figaro vows to outwit his master. Soon, the scheming Bartolo enters the servants’ quarters with his housekeeper, Marcellina, who would like Figaro to marry in repayment for a debt. Marcellina and Susanna trade insults, and the young page Cherbino arrives, reveling in his infatuation with all women. He hides as the Count enters, furious about Cherubino’s recent flirtations with the maid Barbarina, the daughter of the gardener. The Count pursues Susanna but hides when the music master Don Basilio appears. When Basilio suggests, however, that Cherubino may be enamored of the Countess Almaviva, the Count strides forward, enraged further when he then finds Cherubino hiding in the room. Figaro interrupts the scene, followed by servants, who sing the Count’s praises for abolishing the droit du seigneur—the right of a noble lord to take the place of the husband on his wedding night. Almaviva, having heard enough, assigns Cherubino to his Seville regiment and departs, leaving Figaro to cheer up the poor page.

ACT II

In her room, the Countess laments her husband’s waning love but plots to chasten him with Susanna and Figaro’s help. They plot to send Cherubino, disguised as Susanna, to a rendezvous with the Count. Cherubino appears, and the two women dress the page for his encounter. While Susanna leaves to find a ribbon, the Count knocks at the door, forcing the petrified Cherubino to hide in the closet. The Countess tries to convince her husband that Susanna has accidentally locked herself in the closet, but he is certain that it is a lover. He takes the Countess with him to find tools to unlock the closet. Susanna reappears, and Cherubino leaves the room through the window as Susanna takes his place in the closet. The Count and Countess return, and are both shocked to find her in the closet. All is well until the gardener, Antonio, storms in with a broken flowerpot from the bed below the window. Figaro, who has run in to announce that the wedding is all planned, fakes a sprained ankle, saying it was he who jumped out the window. Marcellina, Bartolo and Basilio burst into the room with a court summons for Figaro. The Count is delighted—the wedding will have to wait.

ACT III

In the audience room, where the wedding will take place, Susanna promises to meet with the Count later in the garden. The Count grows suspicious when he overhears her conspiring with Figaro, and he vows revenge. Marcellina is astonished to find that Figaro is actually her long-lost son, and that Bartolo is his father. Susanna walks in as mother and son embrace, and her anger subsides only when Figaro reveals the whole truth. Finding a moment alone, the Countess recalls her past happiness, then joins Susanna in composing a letter inviting the Count to the garden that evening. Later, during the marriage ceremony of Figaro and Susanna, the bride manages to slip the note, sealed with a pin, to the Count. The Count pricks his finger, dropping the pin, which Figaro retrieves.

ACT IV

In the moonlit garden, Barbarina, after unsuccessfully trying to find the lost pin, tells Figaro and Marcellina about the coming tryst between the Count and Susanna. Basilio counsels Figaro to play the fool for now. An angry Figaro leaves, just missing Susanna and the Countess, all dressed for the masquerade. Left alone, Susanna delights aloud about her love for Figaro, but Figaro overhears and assumes she means the Count. Susanna hides in time to see Cherubino woo the Countess, who is disguised as Susanna, until the Count chases him away. The Count follows Susanna into an arbor. Figaro finally comprehends the joke being played and, joining the fun, loudly woos Susanna in her Countess disguise. The Count returns, sees this, and calls everyone to witness the outrage being enacted by (he thinks) his wife and servant. The real Countess reveals herself. Grasping the truth, the Count begs her pardon for his transgressions. All are reunited, and the “mad day” at the court of the Almavivas comes to an end.