What could not be said was sung: Mozart’s *The Marriage of Figaro* as a ‘walking opera’ at Jägerhof Castle. With no stage, right in the thick of the action, where princes once walked.
Shall we raise our voices?
In 1786, Mozart and his librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte wanted to stage a banned play: Beaumarchais’s comedy about a servant who is wiser than his master. Their ruse: they promised the Emperor that it was all about love, not power. What could not be said was sung. Three years later, the French Revolution began.
240 years later, the Komische Oper am Rhein is staging this opera in the very place where power was actually at stake: Jägerhof Castle, built in the 18th century for the court of an Elector, plundered by French revolutionary troops and now home to the Goethe Museum. The palace no longer belongs to any lord, and it is precisely here that Figaro tells his story.
‘Figaros Stimmen’ is a walking opera. There is no stage and no orchestra pit. The audience follows the ensemble from scene to scene through the rooms of the house; the singers stand right amongst the guests, sometimes just a metre away.
With this production, the Komische Oper am Rhein brings its Düsseldorf Mozart-Da Ponte trilogy to a close, following ‘Così fan tutte’ at the Aquazoo and ‘Don Giovanni’ at the Ratinger Hof.
The opera is sung in Italian and spoken in German.
Good to know: The audience moves through the building as the action unfolds; seating is available. (Source: Friends of the Komische Oper am Rhein)
