Op­era buffa in four acts K. 492 (1785/86)
Lib­retto: Lorenzo Da Ponte

Anna Net­reb­ko, Christine Schäfer, Dorothea Röschmann, Bo Skovhus and Ildebrando D’Ar­can­gelo un­der the dir­ec­tion of Nikolaus Harnon­court and ac­copan­ied by the Wien­er Phil­har­monik­er – this "Mar­riage of Figaro" is a feast for mu­sic­al gour­mets. Of all Moz­art 22 pro­duc­tions of the Salzburg Fest­iv­al’s Moz­art year 2006, "Figaro" is no doubt the most pop­u­lar, both among con­nois­seurs and am­a­teurs – per­haps be­cause it is above all a tri­umplh of su­per­i­or mu­sic-mak­ing.

The story is well-known, the work is witty, touch­ing and vi­brant. Based on a polit­ic­ally and so­cially ex­plos­ive com­edy by Beau­mar-chais, but toned down by Moz­art’s lib­ret­tist Lorenzo da Ponte, it treats the top­ic of love, lust, and justice amont the vari­ous classes: no­bil­ity, in­den­tured ser­vants and the rising bour­geois­ie. The joy of the work lies above all in its char­ac­ters, which are per­haps the most "hu­man" be­ings to be found on the op­era stage. Dir­ect­or Claus Guth’s sta­ging fits the mu­sic like a glove: there are no far­cic­al ele­ments or slap­stick; he takes each and every char­ac­ter ser­i­ously. He sees the en­sembles and arias as emo­tion­al rooms that are to be opened by the dir­ect­or. Everything takes place in Count Amaviva’s sum­mer res­id­ence – a place devoid of fur­nish­ings but filled with erot­ic en­ergy.

Ildebrando D’Ar­can­gelo, Figaro
Bo Skovhus, Count Al­maviva
Dorothea Röschmann, Count­ess Al­maviva
Anna Net­reb­ko, Susanna
Christine Schäfer, Cher­ubino
Mar­ie McLaugh­lin, Mar­cel­lina
Franz-Josef Se­lig, Bar­to­lo
Oliv­er Ringel­hahn, Don Curzio
Flori­an Boesch, Ant­o­nio
Eva Liebau, Bar­bar­ina
Uli Kirsch, Cher­ubim

Wien­er Phil­har­monik­er
Konzer­tver­ein­i­gung Wien­er Staat­so­per­n­chor

Nikolaus Harnon­court, con­duct­or
Claus Guth, stage dir­ect­or
Bri­an Large, video dir­ect­or

Re­cord­ing dates: 22.07.| 24.07.| 26.07.2006
26.07.2006 live broad­cast from the premiere on OR­F2 & ARD/Das Er­ste
Ven­ue: House for Moz­art

"Le nozze di Figaro"-DVD from the Moz­art 22 cycle is ex­clus­ively avail­able with­in the com­plete DVD-col­lec­tion. The DVD-only was re­leased in June 2007.