Le Nozze di Figaro

Susanna

Susanna is clever, jealous and calculating, but also kind and wise. She longs for reciprocated love and inner peace. She connects all of the protagonists in her aim of marrying Figaro.

The music for Susanna communicates her independence and intelligence. Her melody is distinct from that of her adored Figaro and develops independently. Her jealousy is reflected in the duet with Marzellina, but she is always the leading figure. She sings the flower aria alone on the stage.
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La Contessa di Almaviva

La Contessa di Almaviva is sad and full of nostalgia. Her great love of the count is not returned and when she first appears she is hurt and unhappy. Later, in her search for a new meaning of life, she shows her sensual side. Thanks to Susanna’s plan she regains her husband’s love.

In the Contessa’s first aria she is characterized as a woman with an inner glow, purity and beauty. The music describes her at first as a deeply sorrowful woman, with slow tempo and great uninterrupted melodic lines without a real highpoint. Thanks to Susanna, she develops greater confidence, which is also reflected in the music.

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Marcellina

Marcellina appears at first to be unsympathetic and jealous in her conflict with Susanna. But she develops into an admirable woman full of ironic humor and caring maternal instincts.

Mozart’s music for Marcellina is initially conflictual. But after the duet with Susanna in the first act it changes and she has increasingly warm and caring motifs. In her aria in the fourth act, Mozart gives her the possibility of revolting as an independent woman against the world of men.

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Barbarina

Barbarina is young, sensitive and melancholy. She believes in goodness and love.

Barbarina’s Cavatina at the start of the fourth act offers us a precious jewel in F minor, an unusual key in Le Nozze di Figaro and in Mozart’s entire catalogue.

The melancholic intimacy is emphasized by the subdued orchestral accompaniment, reduced to the discreet support of strings alone – all in dialogue with Barbarina’s singing. Cavatina is like a children’s rhyme or lullaby: it has a very simple melody that remains within a single octave.