Sevilla, Labyrinth of Passions

The long experienced and brilliant Stage Director Emilio Sagi explains that in his Marriage of Figaro, the location of Sevilla is not a mere decorative background but rather “one more character”. Accordingly, with the theatrical inspiration of a very unique city of opera, Sagi’s production of The Marriage of Figaro spreads out a labyrinth of passions, infidelities and social class conflict at the crossroads of the changes in the 18th century to announce a new era. This first collaboration between Mozart and his librettist Da Ponte is a marvel of psychological insight, innovative language and the most beautiful of arias which stay with us forever.

The Marriage of Figaro is an ensemble of precise mechanism: an intensely choral artefact that requires an excellent cast. And the Maestranza has just this. A compact international team of singers headed by baritone Alessio Arduini, soprano Natalia Labourdette and baritone Vittorio Prato. Conductor Corrado Rovaris, Musical director of the Philadelphia Opera, leads. In 2019 he enjoyed great success at the Maestranza with his incisive reading of Don Pasquale by Donizetti. All of the above is encased in a production of the ever elegant and crystalline Emilio Sagi, who the Teatro de la Maestranza awaits with expectation, after the impossibility of putting on his longed-for vision of Carmen in 2021. Now, Sagi returns to Sevilla to illuminate one of the Mozart jigsaws which, even with the passing of time, continues to show off new angles.

Libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte. Premiere in Vienna on 1 May 1786.