Marriage of Figaro by W. A. Mozart: A play (opera) analysis/summary

 The Marriage of Figaro by W. A. Mozart

The Marriage of Figaro is a classic opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart consisting of four acts based on romcom including love, revenge, and deception made in the year 1786. The music opening called the ‘Overture’ and the aria ‘Non più andrai’ is a huge hit over the centuries.

Act 1 curtain opens in an old unmaintained room and Susanna, the countess's maid, and Figaro, the personal valet to the count, talk about their future wedding but the topic moves to how his fiancé Susanna feels unsafe due to the advances of Count Almaviva towards her and how a feudal law around the 1800s allowed feudal Lords to have sexual intercourse on the wedding night before the husband can do so. He apparently had abolished the law, but plans to bring it back just for his bad intentions with Susanna.

Marcellina, a housekeeper talks about suing Figaro for not paying a loan back. As part of comedy (agreement), he should either return it or marry her and Bartolo, a doctor and practicing lawyer from Seville, also agrees and says that he’ll work with her and have vengeance again as part of comedy.

 

Act 2 opens with Countess Almaviva being sorrowful in her dressing room about the infidelity by her husband which is something that we can still see in the 21^st century. Susanna enters and tried to suppress the matter to make her alright. Figaro too enters and talks about distracting the count telling him about fictional adulterers in his kingdom and also plans to fool him to make him feel guilty. Successful, but the glory short lives due to Bartolo, Basilio (a music teacher), and Marcellina entering in to press charges against Figaro and the curtain closes.

 

In Act 3, it opens in a grand hall with two ornamental chairs, where the count passes a judgment for Figaro to marry Marcellina since he now knows that he was fooled. The story twists and it turns out that Figaro was the illegitimate son of Marcellina and Bartolo. Susanna sees Figaro happy with Marcellina with Bartolo alongside and rages with anger, but she later understands what happens and they plan for a double wedding- Marcellina and Bartolo, Figaro and Susanna. The count’s gardener brings another story into this act by saying that Cherubino, the count’s lustrous page who’s supposed to be in the army is in fact at his house disguised as a woman. Cherubino has played a role in the earlier acts, but his mention here was important. The count is filled with anger on seeing Cherubino here (earlier due to his doubts of him being with the countess). But it dissolves with the gardener’s daughter (also Susanna’s cousin) asking Cherubino’s hand in marriage keeping the Count embarrassed. The scene closes with the double weddings which can be rare in sight.

 

Act 4 starts in the low-lit garden of the wedding night with adequate trees and a small roofed structure for further reasons and is the only act where they portray outdoors, begins with a turning point where Figaro thinks that Susanna is in favor of the Count’s thoughts and is meeting him. Furious with anger on a serious note, Figaro wants vengeance. Susanna’s aware of Figaro’s provoked mindset and teases him by singing a love song whereas Figaro thinks that it’s for the Count. Susanna and Figaro exit or hide from the main stage and enters Countess dressed as Susanna (in a maid costume) but Cherubino destroys this “planned” scene by flirting with the dressed Susanna. Here’s where the importance of having the right costumes as per the idea, comes in contrast. The Count arrives to meet Susanna and later commits adultery still thinking that it’s Susanna but in real, it is the Countess and she later hides away from him. It’s to be noted how parts like sex are visually left in the last act (not in literal meaning, but for pointer purposes.)

Figaro later recognizes that the real Susanna is disguised as the Countess and pretends to talk to her like she is his queen or in other words, valued her very much. Susanna falsely thinks that Figaro is trying to flirt with the Countess but this is later resolved peacefully. Meanwhile, it is shown that the count is searching for the maid, but Figaro comes out and expresses his feeling for the Countess (imagining his wife). Seeing this, the Count is happy and ready to harm Figaro, and then everyone else comes out from the hiding to plead for his life. The story ends happily when the Count realizes that the disguised maid was his wife and feels embarrassed and asks for forgiveness from her and she does do it.

By Kevin D'souza.