Le Nozze di Figaro

UCSC'S Music Department Opera Theatre presents Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, May 28, 29, 30 and 31st, 2009. Performances will take place at the UCSC Music Center Recital Hall, which is transformed every year into a proscenium theater for the annual opera.

Over 100 students, faculty, and community members are involved in the production as musicians, singers, and production staff.

Synopsis

ACT I

A ROOM IN THE CASTLE OF COUNT ALMAVIVA NEAR SEVILLE, SPAIN, 1778

It is the wedding day of Figaro and Susanna. Figaro, the servant of the Count, and Susanna, the maid of the Countess, are measuring the room they have received from the Count to use as their bedroom. Susanna dislikes the room, claiming that it is much too close to the room of the Count. She then tells Figaro that the Count has his eye on her. The Countess rings and Susanna departs. Figaro resolves that he will thwart his master's plans.

Dr. Bartolo and Marcellina enter. Figaro is in debt to Marcellina and has promised to marry her if he doesn't repay her. Bartolo rejoices in this opportunity to avenge himself on Figaro, who arranged the elopement of the Count and Rosina (the Countess), whom Bartolo had hoped to marry himself. As Bartolo exits, Susanna enters and has a brief, barbed encounter with Marcellina, who then departs.

continued ...

The Cast ...

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The Troubled Birth of Figaro

BY SHERWOOD DUDLEY

Few, if any, operas throughout the 400-year history of the art form can boast such a brilliant trio of creators as Le nozze di Figaro: Caron de Beaumarchais, the eighteenth century's foremost comedic playwright; Lorenzo Da Ponte, perhaps the most sensitive librettist in history; and the incomparable Mozart. (The only other works that could possibly claim such an illustrious team are Verdi's Otello and Falstaff, emanating from Shakespearean plays and libretti by Arrigo Boito.) Yet at every step of the way, both the play and the opera had to overcome huge obstacles before public performances could take place.