| Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (1756-1791) | Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) | Libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte |
| Opera North | |||
| Alexander Shelley | Conductor | ||
| Jo Davies | Director | ||
| Gabrielle Dalton | Costume Designer | ||
| Leslie Travers | Set Designer | ||
| Ana Maria Labin | Soprano | Countess Almaviva | |
| Silvia Moi | Soprano | Susanna | |
| Helen Sherman | Mezzo-soprano | Cherubino | |
| Quirijn de Lang | Bass-baritone | Count Almaviva | |
| Richard Burkhard | Baritone | Figaro | |
| Henry Waddington | Bass | Doctor Bartolo | |
| Dean Robinson | Bass | Doctor Bartolo | 2015 Feb 11, 17, 21, 27 |
| Ellie Laugharne | Soprano | Barbarina | |
| Gaynor Keeble | Contralto | Marcellina | |
| Joseph Shovelton | Tenor | Don Basilio | |
| Nicholas Watts | Tenor | Don Curzio | |
| Jeremy Peaker | Baritone | Antonio |
It’s Figaro’s wedding day, and, to add to the usual worries, Figaro learns that his master, the Count, is out to bed his bride-to-be Susanna. The Countess is heartbroken by her husband’s faithlessness – but she is the object of the adolescent desires of the page, Cherubino. And Figaro is in trouble with the housekeeper, Marcellina, who has lent him money on the promise that, if he can’t repay her, he’ll have to marry her …
The Marriage of Figaro is aptly subtitled ‘The Follies of a Day’. Mozart’s music bubbles along with comedic high spirits, but it plumbs the depths of emotion, too, expressing the joy and pain of love and the agony and ecstasy of desire, until all is resolved in a spirit of forgiveness.
With recent work for Opera North including a deliciously funny Ruddigore and a heart-rending Carousel, director Jo Davies is perfectly placed to hold the effervescent comedy and the serious heart of Mozart’s sublime masterpiece in ideal balance.
Sung in English. Performance lasts approximately 3 hours.