Overview
Figaro and Count Almaviva are locked in a duel of wits to see which will be the first to enjoy Susanna’s bridal boudoir. Well, that’s what they think, anyway. Susanna and the Countess know that the women are really the ones who are pulling the strings, ensuring the best of all possible finales.
Synopsis
ACT I. As Figaro and Susanna prepare for their wedding, she discloses that their master, Count Almaviva, has “romantic” designs on her. Marcellina and Bartolo demand that Figaro wed Marcellina, to cancel an old loan he cannot afford to repay. After Marcellina and Susanna trade insults, the amorous pageboy Cherubino arrives, reveling in his infatuation with womankind. He hides when Almaviva appears. The Count pursues Susanna but conceals himself when Don Basilio approaches. The Count steps forward, however, when Basilio suggests that Cherubino is in love with the Countess. Almaviva is enraged further when he discovers Cherubino in the room. Figaro returns with fellow servants, who praise the Count's progressive reform in abolishing the droit du seigneur — the right of a nobleman to take a manservant's place on his wedding night. Almaviva assigns Cherubino to his regiment in Seville and leaves Figaro to cheer up the unhappy adolescent.
ACT II. The Countess laments her husband's waning love but plots to chastize him, encouraged by Figaro and Susanna. Their scheme is to send Cherubino, disguised as Susanna, to a romantic assignation with the Count. Cherubino arrives, and the two women begin to dress him for his rendezvous. Susanna leaves to find a ribbon and the Count knocks at the door, furious to find it locked. Cherubino quickly hides in a closet, and the Countess admits her husband, who is skeptical of her story that Susanna is inside the wardrobe. Taking his wife, he leaves to fetch some tools with which to force open the closet door. Meanwhile, Susanna, having observed everything from behind a screen, helps Cherubino leap out a window, then takes his place in the closet. Both Count and Countess are amazed to find her there. The gardener Antonio storms in with crushed flowers from below the window, explaining that someone jumped out the window onto them. Figaro, who has run in to announce that the wedding is ready, pretends it was he who jumped. Marcellina, Bartolo and Basilio burst into the room waving a court summons for Figaro, which delights the Count, as this gives him an excuse to delay the wedding.
ACT III. Susanna encourages the Count with promises of a rendezvous in the garden. The nobleman, however, grows doubtful when he spies her conspiring with Figaro; he vows revenge. Marcellina and Bartolo discover that Figaro is their long-lost son. The Countess recalls her past happiness, then joins Susanna in composing a letter that invites the Count to the garden that night. Later, during the marriage ceremony of Figaro and Susanna, the bride manages to slip the note, sealed with a hatpin, to the Count.
ACT IV. In the moonlit garden, Barbarina tells Figaro and Marcellina about the coming assignation between the Count and Susanna. Figaro inveighs against women and leaves, missing Susanna and the Countess, who are ready for their masquerade. Susanna rhapsodizes on her love for Figaro, but he, overhearing, thinks she is referring to her feelings for the Count. Susanna hides in time to see Cherubino woo the Countess — now disguised as Susanna — until Almaviva chases him away and sends his wife, who he thinks is Susanna, to an arbor. By now Figaro understands the joke and, joining the plot, makes exaggerated love to Susanna in her Countess disguise. The Count returns and sees Figaro romancing a woman he presumes to be his wife. Outraged, he calls everyone to witness his judgment, but now the real Countess appears and reveals the ruse. Grasping the truth at last, the Count begs her pardon, which is granted.
Artists
- Figaro - Luca Pisaroni
- Susanna - Elizabeth Watts
- Countess Almaviva - Susanna Phillips
- Count Almaviva - Mariusz Kwiecien
- Cherubino - Isabel Leonard
- Don Basilio - Aaron Pegram
- Dr. Bartolo - Gwynne Howell
- Marcellina - Michaela Martens
- Conductor - Kenneth Montgomery (all except August 5)
- Conductor - Robert Tweten (August 5)
- Director - Jonathan Kent
- Scenic Designer - Paul Brown
- Costume Designer - Paul Brown
- Lighting Designer - Duane Schuler
- Choreographer - Peggy Hickey