Le nozze di Figaro

About

The National Theatre Chorus and Orchestra

Although Le nozze di Figaro is today one of the most frequently staged operas, its genesis was hindered by numerous problems and obstacles. The work gave rise to heated emotions from the very beginning of its creation. The libretto is based on the French dramatist Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais’s comedy La Folle Journée, ou Le Mariage de Figaro, a witty satire dealing with explosive social subjects, which was banned by Louis XVI, as well as, later on, by Joseph II, the new Holy Roman Emperor. Yet the censors did not prohibit the play’s adaptation as a libretto, and hence Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte could use it for an opera. Le nozze di Figaro premiered in Vienna on 1 May 1786, with Mozart only completing the prelude two days previously.The first two performances were conducted by the composer himself, seated at and playing the harpsichord. Six months later, the opera was staged in Prague, where it was a resounding success, with the audience responding with enormous ovations. In the wake of this triumph, Mozart accepted from Prague a commission for a new opera, which would become the famous Don Giovanni (premiered in 1787 at the Estates Theatre).

Magdalena Švecová is the very first woman in the history of the National Theatre in Prague to stage Le nozze di Figaro, thus presenting a female view of the forms and transformations of love, infidelity and jealousy, in what is the title’s 20th National Theatre Opera production.