Le Nozze di Figaro : The Marriage of Figaro

Opera buffa in quattro atti : Comic opera in four acts

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)
Libretto: Lorenzo da Ponte (1749 1838)
First performed: Vienna, Burgtheater 1st May 1786

DRAMATIS PERSON:

COUNT ALMAVIVA baritone.

COUNTESS ALMAVIVA soprano, previously Rosina, ward of BARTOLO.
SUSANNA soprano, the COUNTESS chambermaid, engaged to FIGARO.
FIGARO - bass, the COUNTs manservant, previously the Barber of Seville, engaged to
SUSANNA.
CHERUBINO mezzo-soprano, in love with everyone.
MARCELLINA mezzo-soprano, in love with FIGARO, previously BARTOLOs housekeeper.
DON BARTOLO bass, previously Rosinas guardian.
DON BASILIO - tenor, previously music teacher employed by BARTOLO to teach COUNTESS, now
the COUNTs middleman for his various romantic affairs.
DON CURZIO - tenor, a judge.
BARBARINA soprano, ANTONIOs daughter and SUSANNAs cousin, in love with
CHERUBINO.
ANTONIO - bass, gardener in the COUNTs gardens, Barbarina's father, Susanna's uncle.
Two young girls.
Chorus of Peasants.

Note: Perhaps three years previously, in the events of The Barber of Seville, Figaro helped the
younger Count Almaviva win Rosina away from her cunning old guardian Bartolo, and was hired as
the Counts manservant in gratitude. Now tired of his wife, the Count has for some time been
looking elsewhere for female company, and his gratitude to Figaro has soured: not least because
his eyes have lighted on Figaros fiancee, the Countess chambermaid, Susanna. Being a young
man of the Age of Enlightenment, the Count has recently revoked his traditional droit de seigneur,
and is rather regretting it. Bartolo, meanwhile, nurses a grudge against Figaro for his trickery in
depriving Bartolo of his ward (and the dowry he hoped to keep by marrying her himself), while his
former housekeeper, Marcellina, has her own designs on Figaro...

ATTO PRIMO ACT ONE

Camera non affatto ammobiliata, A partly furnished room -

una sedia d'appoggio in mezzo a large sofa centre-stage.

SCENA I SCENE I
Figaro con una misura in mano e Figaro has a measuring-stick in hand
Susanna allo specchio che si sta and Susanna stands in front of the mirror,
mettendo un capellino ornato di trying on a hat decorated with
fiori flowers.

N. 1 Duettino No. 1 Duet

FIGARO: FIGARO:
[misurando] [measuring]
Cinque ... dieci ... venti ... Five ... ten ... twenty ...
trenta ... trentasei ... quarantatre.
SUSANNA:
[specchiandosi]
Ora s ch'io son contenta;
sembra fatto inver per me.
Guarda un po', mio caro Figaro,
guarda adesso il mio cappello.
FIGARO: FIGARO:
S mio core, or pi bello,
sembra fatto inver per te.
SUSANNA: SUSANNA:
Ah, il mattino alle nozze vicino
quanto dolce al mio tenero sposo
questo bel cappellino vezzoso
che Susanna ella stessa si fe'.
FIGARO: FIGARO:
Ah, il mattino alle nozze vicino
quanto dolce al tuo tenero sposo
questo bel cappellino vezzoso
che Susanna ella stessa si fe'.
thirty ... thirty-six ... forty-three.
SUSANNA:
[looking at herself in the mirror]
Yes, I'm happy with it now;
It seems as if it was made for me.
Just look a moment, my dearest Figaro,
look over here at my hat.
Yes, my heart, it's much prettier now,
It seems as if it was made for you.
Ah, on the morning of our wedding day
How sweet to my loving bridegroom
is this charming little hat,
which Susanna made herself.
Ah, on the morning of our wedding day
How sweet to your loving bridegroom
is this charming little hat,
which Susanna made herself.