San Diego OperaTalk!: The Marriage of Figaro

Join host Nicolas Reveles for an in-depth examination of Mozart's delightful comedy of manners, considered by many to be the "perfect opera." Series: "San Diego OperaTalk! with Nick Reveles" [12/2006] [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 11743]

[@airpanache]

Wonderful programme. Nick Reveles is brilliant,witty and making a quite complete coverage of this great work of art during such a short period. Looking forward to see other episodes of the same series.If DVD released would be great.

[@BlueKat2008]

Great programme and a wonderful introduction, suitable for a young mind yet unacustommed with opera. I have been looking for a good introductory course for my teen niece and this is it. Thank you very much.

[@shabanahfazal6512]

Excellent - a very enjoyable and enlightening introduction, or (as in my case) reminder of the key elements of the opera. I really appreciated the discussion of its revolutionary aspects and the way the characters’ emotions are captured musically, especially below deceptive surfaces. I came online to find something exactly like this on the opera - which I’m about to re-watch after many years - so this was perfect. Thank you to all involved in making and uploading this video.

[@Smallpotato1965]

...I don't understand why these people are so amazed that Beaumarchias' play was prohibited. The French Revolution was brewing. Political tension was high, and indeed a few short years later, those 'progressive' aristocrats that applauded the play and thought that 'it was time that these things were said' would have their own heads chopped off by the revolutionaries who lionized Beaumarchais. One of the people who lost their head was Queen Marie Antoinette, youngest sister of Emperor Joseph II. Is it any wonder that Joseph had stopped the (translated in German) play a few years earlier? (the theaterdirector who had wanted to perform it none other than Emmanuel Schikaneder, friend of Mozart and later librettist of the Magic Flute and first Papageno)

[@clivegoodman16]

I understand that Beaumarchais was friendly with the husband of Madame de Pompadour, the mistress of King Louis XV. This could be seen as the prototype of the notion of Count Almaviva being the Spanish Ambassador in London accompanied by Figaro and Suzanne, Figaro's wife who will be the Count's mistress.