THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO

Raven McMillon: Bridesmaid
Veronika Schmidt: Bridesmaid

The Artistic Team

Conductor - Antony Walker
Stage Director - David Paul
Set Designer - Benoit Dugardyn
Costume Designer - Myung Hee Cho
Lighting Designer - Cindy Limauro
Wig and Make-up Designer - James Geier
Stage Manager - Cindy Knight
Asst Conductor - Glenn Lewis
Chorus Master - Mark Trawka
Associate Coach/Pianist - James Lesniak
Asst Stage Director - Frances Rabalais*
Asst Lighting Designer - Todd Nonn
Asst Stage Manager - Lisa-Marie Shuster
Asst Stage Manager - Emily Duffin

_{+    Pittsburgh Opera debut
*     Pittsburgh Opera Resident Artist
**   Pittsburgh Opera Resident Artist alumni}

Production owned by Washington National Opera.

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• Run time: 3 hours and 3 minutes, with one intermission
• Understand Every Word: The Marriage of Figaro is sung in Italian, but has English supertitles projected above the stage at all performances
• Parking Downtown: get real-time parking availability
• Audio Description
• Braille Programs available
• Large-Print Programs available

ACT I. While preparing for their wedding, Figaro learns from Susanna that their philandering employer, Count Almaviva, has designs on her. At this news, the servant vows to outwit his master. Before long the scheming Bartolo enters the servants' quarters with his housekeeper, Marcellina, who wants Figaro to marry her to cancel a debt he cannot pay. After Marcellina and Susanna trade insults, the amorous page Cherubino arrives, reveling in his infatuation with all women. He hides when the Count shows up, furious because he caught Cherubino flirting with Barbarina, the gardener's daughter. The Count pursues Susanna but conceals himself when the gossiping music master Don Basilio approaches. The Count steps forward, however, when Basilio suggests that Cherubino has a crush on the Countess. Almaviva is enraged further when he discovers Cherubino in the room. Figaro returns with fellow servants, who praise the Count's progressive reform in abolishing the droit de seigneur—the right of a noble to take a manservant's place on his wedding night. Almaviva assigns Cherubino to his regiment in Seville and leaves Figaro to cheer up the unhappy adolescent.

ACT II. In her boudoir, the Countess laments her husband's waning love but plots to chasten him, encouraged by Figaro and Susanna. They will send Cherubino, disguised as Susanna, to a romantic assignation with the Count. Cherubino, smitten with the Countess,
appears, and the two women begin to dress the page for his farcical rendezvous. While Susanna goes out to find a ribbon, the Count knocks at the door, furious to find it locked. Cherubino quickly hides in a closet, and the Countess admits her husband, who, when he
hears a noise, is skeptical of her story that Susanna is inside the wardrobe. He takes his wife to fetch some tools with which to force the closet door. Meanwhile, Susanna, having observed everything from behind a screen, helps Cherubino out a window, then takes his
place in the closet. Both Count and Countess are amazed to find her there. All seems well until the gardener, Antonio, storms in with crushed geraniums from a flower bed below the window. Figaro, who has run in to announce that the wedding is ready, pretends it was he who jumped from the window, faking a sprained ankle. Marcellina, Bartolo, and Basilio burst into the room waving a court summons for Figaro, which delights the Count, as this gives him an excuse to delay the wedding.

ACT III. In an audience room where the wedding is to take place, Susanna leads the Count on with promises of a rendezvous in the garden. The nobleman, however, grows doubtful when he spies her conspiring with Figaro; he vows revenge. Marcellina is astonished but thrilled to discover that Figaro is in fact her long-lost natural son by Bartolo. Mother and son embrace, provoking Susanna's anger until she too learns the truth. Finding a quiet moment, the Countess recalls her past happiness, then joins Susanna in composing a letter that invites the Count to the garden that night. Later, during the marriage ceremony of Figaro and Susanna, the bride manages to slip the note, sealed with a hatpin, to the Count, who pricks his finger, dropping the pin, which Figaro retrieves.

ACT IV. In the moonlit garden, Barbarina, after unsuccessfully trying to find the lost hatpin, tells Figaro and Marcellina about the coming assignation between the Count and Susanna. Basilio counsels that it is wise to play the fool. Figaro inveighs against women and leaves, missing Susanna and the Countess, ready for their masquerade. Alone, Susanna rhapsodizes on her love for Figaro, but he, overhearing, thinks she means the Count. Susanna hides in time to see Cherubino woo the Countess—now disguised in Susanna's dress—until Almaviva chases him away and sends his wife, who he thinks is Susanna, to an arbor, to which he follows. By now Figaro understands the joke and, joining the fun, makes exaggerated love to Susanna in her Countess disguise. The Count returns, seeing, or so he thinks, Figaro with his wife. Outraged, he calls everyone to witness his judgment, but now the real Countess appears and reveals the ruse. Grasping the truth at last, the Count begs her pardon. All are reunited, and so ends this "mad day" at the Almaviva court.

~Adapted from Opera News

Here's what other people are saying about The Marriage of Figaro:

• Opera Wire: Four Debutantes In Pittsburgh Opera’s The Marriage Figaro
• Pittsburgh Magazine: November: Best of Culture in Pittsburgh
• Don 411: Pittsburgh Opera presents Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro Mozart’s screwball comedy returns to the Benedum for the first time in seven years
• NEXT Pittsburgh: NEXT Up: Get to know acclaimed American soprano Danielle Pastin on and off stage
• Trib Live: Entertainment Planner Oct 26 - Nov 8
• Uniontown Herald-Standard: GO! List 10-26-17
• Pittsburgh in the Round: Danielle Pastin – Homegrown “Countess” to Grace Pittsburgh Opera’s The Marriage of Figaro
• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: I object: The Marriage of Figaro and other instances of operatic censorship
• Broadway World: Photo Flash: Pittsburgh Opera presents Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro
• Entertainment Central Pittsburgh: November Theater Guide: ‘Twas the Month Before Christmas...
• Pittsburgh City Paper: Short List Nov 2-8
• Trib Live: Entertainment Planner Nov 2-15
• The Almanac: Pittsburgh Opera presents Mozart’s 'The Marriage of Figaro
• LOCAL Pittsburgh: Ready, Set, Sing: Five Surprising Facts about the Pittsburgh Opera’s New Season
• Popular Pittsburgh: A Night at the Opera – A Review of The Marriage of Figaro
• Trib Live: Pittsburgh Opera keeping Figaro very sharp and witty
• Entertainment Central Pittsburgh: The Marriage of Figaro at Pittsburgh Opera
• Opera Wire: Q & A: Soprano Joelle Harvey on Mozart, Motherhood, and The Marriage of Figaro
• WQED-FM "Voice of the Arts" podcast interviews:
  • Joelle Harvey
  • Tyler Simpson
  • Antony Walker
  • David Paul
• Pittsburgh in the Round: The Marriage of Figaro
• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Pittsburgh Opera's Marriage of Figaro is everything an opera should be
• Opera Wire: Weekend Preview
• Zoe with Love: Don't forget about date night - the Pittsburgh Opera
• The Urban Twist: Learn Italian with Tyler Simpson who portrays Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro
• Empty Nest blog: 246 Marriage of Figaro-Pittsburgh Opera-Lovely Comedy
• The Urban Twist: Pittsburgh Opera Mozart ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ Review

See more Pittsburgh Opera videos on our YouTube channel!

Figaro (Tyler Simpson) rubs some salt in Cherubino's (Corrie Stallings) wounds by reminding him of all the fun he'll miss out on while he's in the army.

Susanna (Joélle Harvey) has a little fun with her husband Figaro, who doesn't know that she knows he's watching her. She sings for bliss to come without delay, knowing Figaro mistakenly believes she is not referring to him.

Susanna (Joélle Harvey) and Marcellina (Leah de Gruyl), rivals for Figaro's hand in marriage, unsuccessfully pretend to be polite to each other.

Cherubino (Corrie Stallings, in a pants role) serenades Countess Almaviva (Danielle Pastin) and Susanna (Joelle Harvey) with a song explaining his confusion over his feelings - which may be love, but might just be hormones.

Listen to Pittsburgh Opera General Director Christopher Hahn give a brief synopsis of The Marriage of Figaro featuring excerpts from the 1982 Decca recording with Sir Georg Solti conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra:

• Overture - performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra
• "Non piu andrai" - sung by Samuel Ramey playing the role of Figaro
• “Porgi, amor, qualche ristoro” - sung by Dame Kiri Te Kanawa playing the role of Countess Almaviva
• "Voi signor, che giusto siete" - sung by the entire cast
• "Hai gia vinta la causa...Vedro mentr'io sospiro” - sung by Sir Thomas Allen playing the role of Count Almaviva
• "Che soave zeffiretto” - sung by Countess Almaviva (Dame Kiri Te Kanawa) and Susanna (Lucia Popp)
• "Giunse alfin il momento…deh vieni, non tardar" - sung by Susanna (Lucia Popp)
• "Gente, gente, all’armi, all’armi" - sung by the entire cast

Click play below or download these excerpts for an offline treat!

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has implemented new security and bag policies, effective starting October 1, 2016, at the Benedum Center and their other venues.

You can read their Safety & Security statement, which includes an updated list of prohibited items, and read their Bag Policy, on their website.