The song that Callista Chorale is singing at the imminent
concert which begins, “Giovanni lieti, fiori spargete,” is from The Marriage of Figaro. Before writing this
post, I looked up Figaro on Wikipedia,
such that I could give a basic synopsis of the plot and the biography of the
opera, since, as of this writing, no one has posted about “Giovanni liete.”
The Marriage of Figaro,
then, is an opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto (the text of an
opera; thank you, Music History section of theory book) of Figtaro is based on a play by Pierre Beaumarchais. Mozart composed
his operatic adaptation of Beaumarchais’s work in 1786, and it premiered on the
1st of May that same year, which seems spectacularly early to me; I
guess Mozart was just geniusing it up again.
You may be thinking, “Figaro? That sounds familiar. I guess
that melody I hear every once in a while that goes, ‘Fiiiigaro, Fiiiigaro,
FigaroFigaroFigoroFigaroFigaroFigaroFiiiiiigaro,’ is from Figaro.” I assumed that as well, but it is in fact incorrect. That
is from The Barber of Seville, which
is not even by Mozart.
I don’t know what I was expecting when I looked into the
plot of Figaro, but what I discovered
was not it. Although I had been informed that the plots of operas are sometimes
silly, my mind has always been filled with images of a more dramatic, profound
nature (possibly this stems from the extremely little I know of The Ring Cycle,
by Wagner). But the plot of Figaro reads
like a Broadway musical…one set in Italy in the 1600s, it is true, but the
basic plot could have been transposed into a modern setting with the greatest
of ease—in fact, I have no doubts that this has been done. The plot,
essentially, goes like this: Figaro and Susanna, the servants the Count and
Countess, want to be married. The Count wants to seduce Susanna, and the
Countess wants the Count’s love again. Marcellina, the old housekeeper of
Figaro’s enemy Dr. Bartolo wants to marry Figaro as settlement for a debt he
owes her. Then ruses, letters, window-leaps, disguises, parental revelations,
and hiding-in-closets-ensue, until all get a happy ending, although not
necessarily the one they expected. All of it is very improbably, but tremendously
funny—I chuckled to myself a couple of times while reading it.
I talked about this too! Wow, I feel dumb for not scrolling to see if anyone else choose this topic. But your post actually answers some questions for me! I didn't realize that the Marriage of Figaro was a play before being transposed into an Opera. I think the production I saw so many years ago must have been that version.
ReplyDeleteHowever, your point about the Barber of Seville melody isn't a wrong assumption. The Marriage of Figaro is actually a sequel to the Barber of Seville. They both were originally written by Pierre Beaumarchais. It sounds like once rendered into operas though, different composers took each.
I find that kind of funny though. It's as if the first Harry Potter movie was made starring Daniel Radcliffe and then some other director decided to make the second movie starring Josh Hutcherson. (I feel like in this time the composers were the well known ones, just as now the main actors are the people who get famous).
I wonder how each composer got the rights to these separate plays.
I also find it amusing that plays got turned into operas. I guess that's the equivalent of how we now turn books into movies.
Speaking of which, I'd love to see a high budget movie of this show (in English) because I loved the story so much when I saw it and I think I need it in English again to fully appreciate it a second time. Also I feel like it'd be successful, sort of like how Les Mis was as a movie (except this one wouldn't be depressing!).