Single Tickets:
$10, 15, 20, 30, 35 (discounts available for seniors, youth, and groups)

Season Ticket Packages:
This concert is part of the CU Opera season ticket package.

Location:
Macky Auditorium

Running Time:
Three hours

Event Overview:
In this sequel to the Barber of Seville, Figaro struggles with his new employer Count Almaviva over the loyalty of the beautiful Susanna, to the dismay of Rosina, the Countess. CU Opera's traditionally staged production of Mozart's masterpiece will leave you riveted by this tale of love, betrayal and forgiveness. Sung in Italian with surtitles.

Synopsis:
Act I
Figaro, former barber of Seville, measures the room he will occupy after his marriage to Susanna.  Both are in the service of Count Almaviva, and when Susanna warns Figaro that the Count has designs on her, he vows to outwit his master (“Se vuol ballare”).  Into the now empty room comes Dr. Bartolo, the Countess’ onetime guardian and suitor, eager for revenge on Figaro (who made him lose his ward to Almaviva), with his housekeeper, Marcellina.  Since Figaro once gave Marcellina his promise of marriage as collateral on a loan, Bartolo persuades Marcellina to press charges (“La vendetta”) and leaves; she then trades insults with Susanna (“Via resti servita”).  Marcellina gone, the skirt-chasing page Cherubino steals in, begging Susanna’s protection from the Count, who found him flirting with Barbarina, the gardener’s daughter.  After pouring out his amorous enthusiasm (“Non so più”), he hides as the Count enters to woo Susanna.  When the gossiping music master Don Basilio appears, the Count in turn hides, stepping forward when Basilio hints that Cherubino has a crush on the Countess.  Figaro brings in a group of fellow servants to salute the Count for abolishing the droit du seigneur, an old custom giving the local lord the first night with any bride among his servants.  The Count drafts Cherubino into his regiment and leaves Figaro to tease the boy unmercifully (“Non più andrai”).

Act II
In her boudoir, the Countess laments the waning of her husband’s love (“Porgi, amor”) but plots to chasten him, encouraged by Figaro and Susanna.  Cherubino, disguised as Susanna, will meet with the Count.  The page comes to serenade the Countess with a song of his own composition (“Voi che sapete”).  While dressing the boy in girls’s clothes, Susanna goes out for a ribbon, and the Count knocks, furious to find the door locked.  The Countess locks Cherubino in a closet.  The jealous Count hears a noise; the Countess insists it’s Susanna, but he doesn’t believe her.  He takes her out to fetch some tools to force the lock, giving the eavesdropping Susanna a chance to help Cherubino from the closet and out a window, entering the closet herself and thus baffling the Count and Countess when they return.  As the gardener, Antonio, appears with crushed carnations, Figaro, who has run in to say the wedding ceremony is ready, claims he jumped from window to flower bed, faking a twisted ankle.  When the Count questions a paper found among the flowers, Figaro identifies it as Cherubino’s commission, given him for sealing.  Marcellina, Bartolo, and Basilio burst in and show Figaro’s loan contract to the Count, who is delighted to postpone the wedding.

Act III
In the palace audience room, Susanna promises the Count a rendezvous (“Crudel!  perchè finora”) but fires his suspicions when he overhears her laughing with Figaro.  Enraged, he vows revenge (“Vedrò mentr’io sospiro”).  Alone, the Countess hopes to revive her husband’s love (“Dove sono”).  Marcellina now demands that Figaro pay his debt or marry her, but a birthmark proves he is her long-lost son by Bartolo, and the parents call off their suit, confounding the Count (sextet:  “Riconosci in questo amplesso”).    The Countess dictates a note to Susanna, inviting the Count to the garden (“Che soave zeffiretto”).  Peasants bring flowers to their lady; among them is the disguised Cherubino, whom Antonio spots.  But the Count is distracted by the wedding, and Susanna slips him the note, which has been sealed with a pin.

Act IV
The pin is meant to accompany the Count’s reply, and Barbarina, his messenger, has lost it (“L’ho perduta, me meschina”).  Figaro is hurt to hear of Susanna’s treachery but gives Barbarina another pin, planning to amush his bride with the Count.  He turns to Marcellina for comfort, and the mother tries to calm her son.  Figaro curses women (“Aprite un po’”), and Susanna rhapsodizes on her love for Figaro, without naming him (“Deh viene”).  The concealed Figaro is beside himself, assuming she means the Count.  Susanna and the Countess secretly exchange dresses, and in the darkness both Cherubino and the Count woo the Countess, thinking her to be Susanna (“Pian, pianin le andrò più presso”).  Figaro at last perceives the joke and gets even by wooing Susanna in her Countess disguise.  Now the Count returns, seeing (or so he thinks) Figaro with his wife.  He calls the whole company to witness his judgment but is silenced when the real Countess reveals the ruse.  She grants the Count’s please for forgiveness (“Contess, perdono”), and everyone celebrates.
-- Opera News

Cast:
TBA

Directors:
TBA

Audio:
Listen to music from Le Nozze di Figaro at amazon.com:
• Le Nozze di Figaro