Die Hochzeit des Figaro by Mozart, Do. 28 Nov. 2013, Ab (2013/2013), Unter der Regie von Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, Dirigat Alain Altinoglu, ROHM, Muscate, Oman

The prestigious Vienna State Opera and its exceptional orchestra – the musicians are simultaneously members of the famous Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra The Vienna State Opera, indisputably one of the most prestigious institutions in the world of classical music, presents Mozart’s beloved The Marriage of Figaro. This same opera premiered in Vienna in 1786 and has been a longstanding and widely celebrated part of the Vienna State Opera’s repertoire as well as a perennial favourite at opera houses around the world. A brilliantly timed comedy and one of Mozart’s crowning achievements as a composer, The Marriage of Figaro is set in the manor of the Count and Countess Almaviva, who have been married for several years and find that their initial passion has faded. Figaro – a friend and former servant of the Count – is about to marry the Countess’s servant, Susanna, but the Count has his own lecherous designs on the young woman. From this premise, chaos breaks forth via the many pleasant confusions of romantic farce: cross-dressing, mistaken identity and co-conspirators getting tangled in the twists of their own plots. The artful Figaro sprang from the pages of playwright Pierre Beaumarchais’s “Figaro” trilogy to inspire numerous operas, including Rossini’s The Barber of Seville (staged here in September 2013) and this famed collaboration between Mozart and the librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte. This production by the world renowned Vienna State Opera with its great singers and its exceptional orchestra – the musicians are simultaneously members of the famous Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra – is nothing short of an operatic delight.