Mozart

Le nozze di Figaro

29 June – 21 August

ANOTHER COMEDY ON STAGE THIS SUMMER

13 Jul - 24 Aug

Falstaff

Verdi

This madcap comedy is all breathless energy and big-hearted belly laughs.

Falstaff bites off more than he can chew when he messes with the merry wives of Windsor. Set in 1940s post-war England, this Shakespeare-meets-Ealing-comedy production combines humour with music that bursts with energy.


Mozart’s sexiest and sharpest opera brims with beauty, mischief and wisdom.

The Count has his eye on Susanna. Can she outwit him and marry her beloved Figaro? And will the Countess ever win back her husband’s love? Mozart’s comic masterpiece returns to Glyndebourne in a brand-new staging by Mariame Clément.

Sung in Italian with English supertitles.


Creative team

Conductor
Riccardo Minasi

Director
Mariame Clément

Designer
Julia Hansen

Lighting Designer
Paule Constable

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

The Glyndebourne Chorus

Cast includes

Figaro
Michael Nagl
Tommaso Barea
18, 21 August

Susanna
Johanna Wallroth

Count Almaviva
Huw Montague Rendall

Countess Almaviva
Louise Alder

Cherubino
Adèle Charvet

Bartolo
Alessandro Corbelli


SYNOPSIS

ACT I

Susanna makes final adjustments to a wedding-cap she has made, while her fiancé Figaro measures up the bedroom the Count has given them in the chateau. Susanna points out its dangerous proximity to their master, reminding Figaro of the droit du seigneur – the feudal tradition allowing the Count to take any maidservant before her wedding night. Figaro vows to thwart him.

Dr Bartolo and his former servant Marcellina enter. She begs him to help enforce a marriage contract between herself and an unwilling Figaro – who signed as collateral for a loan he cannot repay. Bartolo relishes the prospect of getting even with Figaro. Revenge shall be his!

Pageboy Cherubino begs Susanna to intercede with the Countess: the Count found him with the gardener’s daughter Barbarina, and has sent him away. At the mercy of his teenage hormones, the boy can think of nothing but love. Seeing the Count approaching, Cherubino hides.

The Count pressures Susanna to meet him at dusk. But singing teacher Basilio’s arrival forces the Count to hide. Enraged by Basilio’s gossip of Cherubino’s crush on the Countess, the Count suddenly emerges, his jealousy only intensified by the discovery of Cherubino himself.

SYNOPSIS

ACT II

The Countess laments her husband’s neglect. Figaro explains the Count’s designs on Susanna, and his own plan to buy time by sending Cherubino (disguised in women’s clothes) to meet the Count instead. Cherubino arrives to try on his borrowed outfit. Taking advantage of Susanna’s brief absence, he flirts with the Countess. But – once again – the Count’s arrival forces him to hide. He locks himself in the closet. Susanna returns, unseen, and waits.

Suspicious that his wife is concealing a lover, the Count fetches tools to unlock the door, taking the Countess with him. Susanna immediately swaps places with Cherubino, who escapes through the window. Returning, the Countess confesses to her now-apoplectic husband that Cherubino is inside. Both are nonplussed when Susanna emerges instead.

Figaro arrives. He’s followed by gardener Antonio, angry that someone has jumped from the window onto his plants. Figaro claims it was him. The humiliated Count is relieved when Bartolo, Marcellina and Basilio enter, demanding that Figaro marry Marcellina or repay his debt.

SYNOPSIS

ACT III

The Countess now sets her own plan in motion: Susanna will finally ‘agree’ to a rendezvous with the Count – an assignation the Countess herself will keep. But the Count’s rapture turns to fury when he overhears Susanna rejoicing with Figaro.

Alone once again, the Countess hopes to yet save her marriage. Meanwhile, Marcellina has won her court case: Figaro is hers! Figaro pleads that he requires the consent of parents he has never known. In his description of his unusual origins, Marcellina recognises Figaro as her long-lost son; Bartolo is his father. A horrified Susanna arrives to find Figaro embracing her rival, but soon rejoices with the reunited family.

Susanna and the Countess write a letter to the Count, inviting him to the rendezvous; a pin must be returned as acknowledgment.

The wedding celebrations begin. Susanna slips the letter to the Count, who drops the pin as he opens it – catching Figaro’s attention.

SYNOPSIS

ACT IV

That night in the garden, Barbarina laments the loss of the pin the Count gave her to return to Susanna. A jealous Figaro, suddenly convinced he understands the situation, resolves to interrupt the lovers’ ‘tryst’.

Disguised as one another, Susanna and the Countess enter to ensnare the Count. The Count woos ‘Susanna’. Figaro, seeing through Susanna’s disguise, feigns seducing ‘the Countess’. He is caught by the Count, who refuses to forgive his wife for her apparent infidelity. But the real Countess reveals both herself and the truth, and all is set right.


Advisory information about The Marriage of Figaro

The story of The Marriage of Figaro plays on the imbalances of power between masters and servants, and men and women. At several points, characters of lesser status are subject to unwanted sexual advances and physically aggressive behaviour.


Performance timings

Timings are subject to change.

*Restaurants open

For further information about your visit please visit our how to get here page.

DATES:
1, 5, 7, 11, 15, 17, 22, 25, 30 JULY
2 AUGUST

Gardens open: 3.00pm
Opera starts: 5.00pm
Interval (90 mins)*: 6.45pm
Opera resumes: 8.15pm
Opera ends: 9.40pm

DATES:
29 JUNE
20, 27 JULY
5, 8, 10, 13, 16, 18, 21 AUGUST

Gardens open: 2.00pm
Opera starts: 4.00pm
Interval (90 mins)*: 5.45pm
Opera resumes: 7.15pm
Opera ends: 8.40pm


Supported by Simon & Kate Orebi Gann and Family
Simon & Harriet Patterson and a Syndicate and Circle of Individuals.

Bring world-class opera to the stage

To find out more about production support for Festival 2025 click here
or contact our Director of Development, Helen McCarthy for an informal chat:
call 01273 013308 or email helen.mccarthy@glyndebourne.com.


Main image: Stocksy/Image treatment by Melissa Castro Duarte

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