Mozart's the Marriage of Figaro March 19, 2010

Presented by the Penn State School of Music and the Institute for the Arts and HumanitiesConsidered to be one of the greatest operas ever written, The Marriage of Figaro features Mozart's most delightful and youthful score. Based on the play by Pierre-Augustine Caron de Beaumarchais that scandalized pre-revolutionary France, the opera tells the story of Figaro, the valet to Count Almaviva, and his approaching nuptials with Susanna, the chambermaid to the countess. Troubles come at them from every direction - from the count's gossipy music teacher, Basilio, from the dotty and snobbish elderly couple, Bartolo and Marcellina, from the perpetually tipsy gardener, Antonio, and from the count himself. Much conflict, some confusion, occasional hilarity, and intermittent heartbreak result, until the plot is resolved and all is made right.This fully staged performance is sung in English and is arranged in an inventive orchestral reduction for woodwind quintet and piano.This performance is part of Moments of Change, a Penn State Institute for the Arts and Humanities multifaceted and ongoing initiative focused in 2009-10 on the late eighteenth century (1776-1801). It is made possible through a partnership between the School of Music and the Institute for the Arts and Humanities.