Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro: Count On a Reckoning

Aria Code

WQXR & The Metropolitan Opera

Music Interviews, Music Commentary, Aria, Music, Arts, Metropolitan, Performing Arts, Code, Wqxr, Opera, Wnyc, Studios

4.8 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 21 April 2021

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Maybe you’ve heard this one before: a powerful man abuses his privilege and wealth to exploit the women in his life. When confronted with the fact that they’re not his playthings, he throws a fit and blames everyone but himself. Sound like your daily news alert? It’s Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, but somehow the world of feudal Spain in the 1700s is still distressingly familiar today.

The aria “Hai già vinta la causa” traces the emotions of the aristocratic and imperious Count Almaviva when he realizes that his wife and servants have been plotting his comeuppance. Filled with rage that they won’t bend to his will, the Count offers up one of the great temper tantrums in opera history. And don’t be surprised if the Count’s anger gives you flashbacks to headline news from the very recent past.

The Guests:

Bass-baritone Gerald Finley spent the first decade of his career playing the wily factotum Figaro, and now he sings the controlling Count Almaviva in opera houses around the world. He loves throwing himself into the fire and fury in this aria, but also holds tight to the belief that the Count is truly repentant in the end.

Professor Sharon Marcus teaches English and comparative literature at Columbia University. When it came to music, her mother insisted that she grow up listening to classical. She first met the Count in The Marriage of Figaro when she was still in grade school.

Laura Bassett is a freelance journalist and an opinion columnist for MSNBC. She originally wanted to be an academic. but the 2008 presidential election convinced her that she needed to be writing stories about the national conversations we're having today. She's written extensively about abuses of power in politics and the instances of sexual harassment that have dominated headlines in recent years.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the antithesis of justice. This is somebody abusing justice to get what he wants
0:09.8	or punish people who deny him what he wants.
0:14.7	From WQXR in the Metropolitan Opera, this is Ariacode. I'm Rianne Giddens.
0:20.4	These men really do believe that they are in a position to protect women when they are
0:25.7	in fact the perpetrators. Every episode we unpack a single area so we can hear it in a whole new way.
0:32.4	Today it's I Javinta La Cosa from Mozart's Lenotze di Figaro or the Marriage of Figaro.
0:39.8	He thinks revenge. This must be the moment of revenge. I'm going to have my power. I'm going to give my sentence.
0:59.8	Most operas we cover on the show end in one of two ways. Someone gets married or somebody dies.
1:05.9	Either way, when the podcast ends, you never hear from them again. But this week's episode brings back two characters you know from last time,
1:13.5	drawn from the plays of Pierre Beaumarsche, the handsome Count Almaviva and his bride Rosina.
1:19.9	Now they bust her out of a forced marriage in Rosini's The Barber of Seville, and then their story continues with the marriage of Figaro.
1:27.4	But a lot has changed. When Mozart's opera starts, the Count and Rosina are only a few years into their marriage,
1:34.2	but the Count is already bored. And he's an 18th century Spanish lord, which means he gets to do whatever he wants with his estate and everyone on it.
1:44.1	The Count is especially obsessed with his wife's maid, Susanna, who is definitely not interested. Susanna is engaged to marry the Count's servant, Figaro.
1:54.3	Plus, she's loyal to the Countess, who feels neglected and lonely and just wants her loving husband back.
2:01.2	So Susanna, Figaro and the Count, has hatched this screwball scheme to give the Count his comeuppance.
2:06.9	But at the beginning of this Arya, the Count has gotten wind of it and it really sets him off.
2:13.3	He's used to being in control of everything, but now his power is being challenged and he spins into a rage.
2:21.4	So just to recap, a man abuses his unbelievable privilege, realizes that women are not his playthings, and he flips out.
2:31.1	Shocked, I'm shocked, I tell you.
2:33.4	So let's see how this unfolds, both in the opera and in our world today. Ready for some introductions?
2:40.0	Yes, come on.
	...

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