The Marriage of Figaro - MOZART August 19, 2006

The Marriage of Figaro - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
A Kay Shouse Great Performance - New Production
In Italian with projected English translations

The quintessential romantic comedy
A newly-married couple, a philandering husband and his beautiful wife, a lovesick teenage boy, and a collection of long-lost relatives populate this story full of heartache, love, and laughter.

The young couple is poor but very much in love, and the groom's boss has generously offered space within his own house for the couple's first home. The groom (Figaro, of course) has worked for his employer (the Count Almaviva) for years - he even played matchmaker when the Count was wooing his own future wife Rosina.

Unfortunately, the Count has fallen out of love with his beautiful Countess, and he has designs on Figaro's fiancée Susanna. A trusting soul who is further blinded by love, Figaro can't believe that his employer would stoop so low. Susanna, on the other hand, is no one's fool, and she's determined to catch the Count in his own trap.

Meanwhile, the teenage boy running amok in the household has his eye on the Countess. The gardener's daughter Barbarina has fallen in love with that same teenage boy (Cherubino), and on top of that she finds herself implicated in Susanna's plot to expose the Count.

The older generation gets in the act, too. The Countess' former guardian (Bartolo) is still miffed at Figaro for helping the Count steal her away. Bartolo's housekeeper (Marcellina) is determined to marry Figaro herself (talk about robbing the cradle...), saying that he promised to wed her if he couldn't pay a debt he owed.

In case you haven't seen The Marriage of Figaro, we won't tell you how it turns out. But there's a mistaken identity surprise, the wedding actually takes place, the wily women see that the men get their just deserts, and there's a twist at the end that melts the hardest of hearts.