First came the moral monster Don Giovanni being dragged down to hell for murder and a career of sexual imposition, with a restorative operatic appendix in which the people of Seville sing to his downfall. Then a delightful Mozartean orchestral interlude, apparently the brisk scherzo movement of a symphony (dominated by woodwinds and brass). And then we’re back in Seville, where Figaro is measuring the space for the bridal bed he and Susanna will soon share, while she’s trying on her wedding headpiece; hovering over the couple is the specter of Figaro’s literally rapacious employer Count Almaviva. Yes, it’s a comic opera about sex and power, and it’s a masterpiece.
That’s what brought me to consciousness and a new day at 2:15 am — my life has been deranged in so many ways that I no longer know how to report on it, except for the MQoS announcement that I’m not dead yet — and, yes, I did recognize that the orchestral interlude was in fact the overture to Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro [‘The Marriage of Figaro‘], capturing the spirit of the work without using any of its music, getting us into the proper mood for the opera without disclosing any of its thematic material. Not even a whiff of Figaro’s aria “Se vuol ballare (signor contino)”, which is the essence of the opera plot distilled into a dance tune. (If this were a Broadway musical, “Se vuol ballare” would be the main theme of the overture. With Figaro’s aria to that amorous butterfly Cherubino, “Non più andrai (farfallone amoroso)”, as a contrasting second theme.)
Expanding now on three things: the overture as a free-standing orchestral composition; “Se vuol ballare” as Figaro‘s theme song; and a note on Figaro as an ensemble opera. Plus an appendix flagging an intricate topic in g&s (gender & sexuality) studies that’s central in the plots of both Don Giovanni and Figaro.
