The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart, De la (2021/2021), Regizat de către Grzegorz Chrapkiewicz,, Dirijor Piotr Sułkowski, Kuba Wnuk, Teatr WOK, Warsaw, Poland

The Marriage of Figaro is one of the greatest operas in the history of the world. The opera was written in 1786 to a libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte based on Pierre Beaumarchais' famous play of the same title. Art criticizing the social relations of the feudal world was banned in many countries. Mozart, taking up this topic, also risked a lot, although da Ponte took care to omit all social or political issues present in the original play. The premiere took place in the court theater on May 1, 1786, with the consent of the Emperor. The work was well received, although further formal restrictions were imposed on it. In this work, Mozart climbed to the very top of absolute creative inventiveness. The social meaning of Beaumarchais's comedy was given a dimension of social psychology through Mozart's music. Each character in Mozart's opera speaks its own musical language, tells its own story. Mozart achieves this through eighteenth-century operatic conventions, and at the same time endows individual characters with individual musical features. Thus, the characteristics of the bold Figaro, the brutal Count, the resolute Susanna or the tormented Countess are different. Arias, duets, ensembles, great collective scenes, act finals lasting many minutes, become not only a musical image of the stage action, but through the individuality of the characters, they present real life to the viewer's eyes. Grzegorz Chrapkiewicz's staging gave this brilliant opera a purely human dimension. The director plays with the characters and at the same time reveals human weaknesses, including emptiness and lust. He softens the sharp features of the characters with humor and metaphor, enlivening the action with gesture and pantomime. The veiled eroticism of the work and the psychological outline of individual human types give this realization the features of outstanding, though funny art. Mozart's music gives the whole fluency and turns up the action of the work. The new version of The Marriage of Figaro at the Warsaw Chamber Opera will not leave the viewer indifferent, but will engage them emotionally, drawing them into its specific, not entirely cheerful, world.