Penguinlady's Full Review: Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro / Muti, Allen, Price, e...
My father had an uncle who was a conductor at the Met in the 1930s. Uncle Artur was the director of the “German Wing” at the same time that Toscanini was the director of the “Italian Wing.” He died in the late 1930s, so I never met him, but he left a lovely legacy in the form of lifetime passes to the Met for his widow, Tante Ada. And she often gave her tickets to my parents, who as new arrivals in 1940, were utterly unable to afford such luxuries.
My parents were utterly convinced that Mozart was the greatest composer who ever lived. And while they, as chamber music fanatics, regarded opera as somewhat dramatically and emotionally over-the-top, they did enjoy it. Depending on the work being offered, I sometimes got to go. And so it was that I first saw Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, or “The Marriage of Figaro” as a smallish child. As is the case with all of Mozart, the music is tremendously accessible, even to a small person. And the story... well, more about that later. My memories of those events are wonderful, as much for the fun of dressing up and enjoying fine dining at the Automat as for the music.
Since those days in the early 1950s, I’ve seen Figaro at least a dozen times, probably more. I know most of the music, used the Wedding March at my own tiny wedding, and have used Barbarina’s cavatina, “L’ho perduta” from Act IV, as my audition piece since I started singing long, long ago.
When I got my first CD player about 16 years ago, Figaro was one of the first recordings I bought. The choice wasn’t as wide then as it is now, but I still have it and still enjoy it and it still takes me back to our orchestra seats at the red velvet plush and gilt of the old Met.
OK, enough nostalgia.
A LITTLE BACKGROUND
Le Nozze di Figaro was first performed in Vienna on May 1, 1786. It caused an immediate scandal, because hidden not very deep in the opera buffa plot of mistaken identities, devious schemes, misplaced infatuations, slapstick hiding and jumping out of windows, and selective eavesdropping on double-entendre conversations, was a very seditious germ: the besting of a villainous nobleman by his lowly servants: his own valet, Figaro, and Figaro’s fiancee, Susanna, the Countess’ maid. Needless to say, such an idea was quite revolutionary, even seditious, for the time; the original play on which it was based had been banned.
The libretto, by Lorenzo da Ponte, was in turn based on the second of three plays by Beaumarchais. Beaumarchais wrote the first, which became Rossini’s Barber of Seville, as a frothy comedy with no underlying nuances - what you saw was what you got. By the time he got to the second play, the one on which the Marriage of Figaro was based, his mood had darkened and he filled the play with a plethora of radically subversive ideas. He evidently got into a lot of trouble with the censors over it. Interestingly enough, though, Barber was composed 30 years after Figaro, although the action takes place earlier.
THE PLOT
The Marriage of Figaro has a complicated, convoluted plot, a synopsis of which is below, clearly marked in italics so you can skip past it if you don’t want to read it.
The Marriage of Figaro continues the story of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, which tells how Count Almaviva schemed to marry Rosina, an orphaned young heiress, in spite of the best efforts of her guardian, Doctor Bartolo, who intended to marry her himself. The Count was assisted in his intrigue by Figaro.
Three years have passed and the Count is bored with his wife. (Staged productions of his opera usually show her as a woman of “a certain age,” but if you do the math, she’s probably not out of her teens yet.) Rosina has brought with her Marcellina, formerly her governess but now installed as housekeeper at the palace, and Basilio, her former music master. Figaro is the Steward of the palace. The Count occupies his time by chasing as many women as possible. The day before the action of the opera begins, he visited Barbarina, the 12-year-old daughter of his gardener, Antonio, and found his love-struck page, Cherubino, there. (NOTE: Cherubino is always sung by a woman - Frederika von Stade practically owns the role - and is considered the prime “pants role” for a mezzo.) He promptly fired Cherubino. Cherubino, barely into his teens and awash in raging hormones, loves anything with a bumpy chest, but has a special infatuation for the Countess, hoping that she will intercede and get him pardoned.
Until recently, the Count invoked “Le Droit de Seigneur,” a medieval custom whereby the lord of the manor gets to deflower all subordinate women on their wedding nights. Figaro has felt safe enough to announce his engagement to Susanna, the Countess’ maid. No sooner done, however, than the Count notices her and begins his pursuit. She rebuffs him, and he threatens to support Marcellina in forcing Figaro to marry her in fulfillment of a contract between them regarding repayment of a debt. That, of course, would nullify the engagement and leave Susanna without a protector when the Count stalks her.
Marcellina, of course, is delighted; she’s portrayed as a verging-on-elderly comic figure of a woman. Since the term for repayment of the loan has expired, she demands that Figaro marry her, and summons Dr. Bartolo, her former lover and employer, to help her. Bartolo loves the idea; after all, Figaro thwarted his scheme to marry Rosina. So he’s anxious to get back at Figaro and unload his old mistress on him.
Figaro, meanwhile, is happily unaware of the Count’s designs on Susanna until she tells him. At that point, his old scheming talents come into play and he dreams up several useless counterfoils, including making the Count publically show that “Le Droit de Seigneur” is dead by veiling Susanna in virtuous white. When that doesn’t work, he decides to play tit for tat with the Count with an anonymous letter stating that the Countess has taken a lover, and to send Susanna to meet the Count in the garden that night. Of course, he isn’t really going to let Susanna go - he’ll send Cherubino in disguise. Once the Count is fully involved, the Countess will appear and humiliate her husband into renouncing his philandering ways.
None of these plans work, of course, so the Countess hatches her own plot: Susanna will agree to Meet the Count, but instead of Cherubino, it will be the Countess herself who will meet him in disguise.
The actual marriage of Figaro and Susanna goes off without much notice, which renders all these plots and counterplots irrelevant, since the issue of “Le Droit de Seigneur” is no longer germane. But the Countess is eager to show up her husband and make him see the error of his ways, and pursues the trick.
Figaro, blissfully unaware of this change in plans, watches from hiding. Both he and the Count think the mysterious figure of a woman is Susanna. She is also watching, but her initial amusement turns to dismay as she realizes that Figaro thinks she is being unfaithful. She hastily dons the Countess’ cloak, but he recognizes her, realizes what’s going on, and all is well. Unfortunately, in the joy of the moment, the Count sees his valet embracing... the Countess... or so he thinks. He flies into a rage, denouncing them both for the same unfaithfulness that he’s shown his wife since their marriage, and it isn’t until the real Countess appears, shedding Susanna’s cloak, that he realizes the deception and begs her forgiveness. All is forgiven and the day ends in merrymaking.
That’s the short version of the plot.
THE MUSIC
Music not only came easily to Mozart; it also came in the form of sublime melodies. The Marriage of Figaro is chock-full of incredibly lovely arias, all of which exactly suit, in text, melody, and harmony, the actions they portray. The duets, trios, and, in one hysterical scene, sextet, are perfectly matched. It’s the music that brings these characters to life; their musical roles fit them so perfectly, and work so well with each other’s, that it’s impossible to imagine the work minus even one of the minor characters. It’s sobering to realize that Mozart was only 30 when he composed this work.
THE RECORDING
This 1987 recording features Ricardo Muti conducting the Vienna Philharmonic. The soloists include:
Jorma Hynninen, Count Almaviva Margaret Price, Countess Almaviva Kathleen Battle, Susanna Thomas Allen, Figaro Ann Murray, Cherubino Kurt Rydl, Bartolo Mariana Nicolesco, Marcellina Alejandro Ramirez, Don Basilio Ernesto Favazzi, Don Curzio Franco de Grandis, Antonio Patrizia Pace, Barbarina
The choral work is performed by the Vienna State Opera Choir.
I chose this recording from among the several that were available in 1987 - there are many more choices today - solely and only because of Kathleen Battle. For my money, there has never been a more perfect Mozart voice - warm, shimmery, accessible. As I said in an earlier Mozart/Battle review, You may know of Ms. Battle as the former middle school music teacher in Cincinnati who blazed through the operatic firmament during the 1970s, becoming a star at the Met and many other houses worldwide, before being unceremoniously fired by the Met in the mid-90s for her outrageous diva-esque behavior. Say what you will about her behavior, though, never has there been a voice more perfectly suited to the demands of Mozart than her lyric coloratura: sweet, full, rounded, tones, capable of the occasionally killer tessituras (range of pitches in a given piece) with which Mozart sometimes likes to torment his singers. She can sustain ethereal high notes with no loss of power or dynamic, never getting screechy, and her bottom notes are rounded and plummy. Her diction is perfect, and her interpretations are intelligent and compelling. I can’t help but believe that Mozart would have reveled in her voice.
Which is not to take anything from the other singers in this recording. Thomas Allen is a convincing Figaro, although I’d like to have heard a little more bite to his role; Figaro is, after all, the Trickster in this piece. Welsh soprano Margaret Price is a lovely, sad, resigned Countess, rich of voice, whose “Porgi, amor” breaks the heart. As the Count, Finnish Jorma Hynninen brings both warmth and treachery to his role. Ann Murray, an English mezzo, is a little too sweet and limpid for my idea of Cherubino; I see that role as eternally buffeted by oceans of hormones that keep him in constant hot water; Murray’s singing is lovely but too polite for me.
My only gripe with Muti is with the tempi. The overture begins at breakneck speed - I remember when I put my new recording into the CD player and went to the kitchen for a glass of wine, in preparation for a nice evening with the libretto. Imagine my shock when the entire Vienna Phil came cantering - nay, galloping - through my living-room. Fortunately, he doesn’t keep those tempi throughout or there wouldn’t be time to listen. While I most emphatically do NOT subscribe to the “slow is respectful” school of tempi, Muti tends to go a tad overboard in the other direction.
This version of The Marriage of Figaro comes as a 3-disc set, boxed, with a wonderful “booklet,” for lack of a better word. This publication is 317 pages long and includes a comprehensive discussion of the opera, the complete text, and bios of the performers... in English, French, German, and Italian. There’s something here for everybody.
SUMMARY AND VERDICT
What I love about this recording, aside from the oh-so-familiar music, is Kathleen Battle.
What I’m not so crazy about is the fact that it was recorded with a modern orchestra. As an aficionado and performer of Early Music for the past 35 years, I believe that music is best served when performed on the instruments for which it was written. (Except for Bach on the piano. OK, Theresa?) So my ideal would be Battle with an authentic-instrument ensemble, like some of the superb English, Dutch, and German ensembles who record today. And indeed, I may treat myself to one of those recordings one of these days - once I’ve bought ALL the other music on my list. (In other words, fat chance.)
Until then, this will more than merely do - it pleases mightily. Four stars.
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