From Saturday, The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart will take the stage for four performances under the direction of Nicolas Ellis at the head of the Orchester Métropolitain. This will be the promising chef’s first presence in the pit in Montreal.
The rebellious and shaggy face of a young tattooed man who sticks his tongue out at us while seeming to appreciate the work of his orthodontist has become the emblem of the Marriage of Figaro version 2023 in Montreal. There seems to be some kind of problem of adequacy or correlation between the individual and Mozart’s masterpiece, since on Tuesday evening, a few days before the show, the Montreal Opera began to trigger a “48-hour flash sale” (we’re in the middle of it) with the second ticket at 50% off and a 40% discount for singles. It is a shame to note that what Bernard Labadie once described without hesitation as “Mozart’s greatest opera” does not naturally and effortlessly fill four evenings in Montreal!
If the Quebec leader attributed these virtues, in 2003, to Marriage of Figaro it is because, he then said to Duty : “It is the opera where the theatrical and dramaturgical mechanics are the most perfect. There are obviously very well-known tunes there, but what dazzles is the very well-oiled theatrical mechanics at an often very fast pace, as in Beaumarchais’ play. And music is the purest expression of this dramatic mechanism. »
Mechanics and politics
We could not find a more eloquent synthetic analysis. Historical importance is added to the musical and dramaturgical virtues of the work. With The Marriage of Figaro, the first of three collaborations between Mozart and the librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte began in 1785. Mozart and Da Ponte dare to create an opera on The crazy day, or the marriage of Figaro by Beaumarchais, a highly subversive piece, where we see servants triumphing through the ruse of an aristocrat adept at the right of cooking.
As we will develop on Saturday in an article “Opera and politics”, Louis XVI was not mistaken, banning the play in France for three years. In Austria, thanks to Mozart’s opera, premiered on 1er May 1786, “what we could not say on stage, we could now sing”, as a chronicler noted at the time. Even if Da Ponte waters down Beaumarchais’ political message to pass the censorship test, he nonetheless allows power struggles and the question of sexual mores to clearly appear in the plot.
Da Ponte’s major cut is due to the reduction of Figaro’s trial which closes Act III in Beaumarchais. His instinct as a librettist leads him to finish each of these acts with a vocal ensemble. The excitement and musical fever that result from these ensembles contribute to the irresistible impact of Marriage of Figaro.
Chef Nicolas Ellis will be eagerly awaited to give all the desired rhythm to this “crazy day”, just as Jordan de Souza was expected in Don Giovannihere in 2016. Nicolas Ellis deepened the Mozart-Da Ponte relationship in 2018 with his Orchester de l’agora in a brilliant show retracing the crazy life of the librettist.
The Marriage of Figaro were on the bill at the Opéra de Montréal in 2003 and 2011. This time it will be the presentation of a co-production of the Operas of Kansas City, San Diego, Philadelphia and Palm Beach, directed by Stephen Lawless , in sets and costumes by Leslie Travers made in Kansas City in 2016. Excerpts on YouTube give an idea of this show with a sober, aesthetic and conventional setting.