I had been riding high through Viennese society – perhaps a little too high at times. My lifestyle reflected my confidence with admirable accuracy. Constanze and I lived in a fine apartment, surrounded by tasteful furnishings and assisted by employees whose continued presence depended on optimism rather than punctual payment. Audiences adored my concertos, the Emperor enjoyed my wit, and for a while it seemed that nothing was out of reach.
Naturally, this felt like the perfect moment to cause trouble.
I turned my attention to Le nozze di Figaro[i], an opera so provocative that several royal courts had already decided it was best avoided altogether. Composing it felt like trying to bottle lightning. Each day brought new ideas, musical surprises, and characters who delighted in outwitting one another – and occasionally me. It was, without question, the most fun I had experienced since discovering champagne.
The opera tells the story of Figaro and Susanna, two clever servants determined to marry despite the persistent efforts of their employer, Count Almaviva, to seduce Susanna first. Through disguises, misunderstandings, and well-timed reversals, the servants triumph, the Count is humbled, and loyalty is restored. It is a comedy of mistaken identities, romantic chaos, and social commentary delivered with a smile sharp enough to leave a mark.
The authorities were uneasy. The work was described as “too lively”, which in polite Austrian translated to “we don’t know how to ban this”. Fortunately, my brilliant librettist, Lorenzo Da Ponte[ii], possessed an extraordinary gift: he could persuade censors that pointed satire was merely decorative. With patience and charm, he secured the Emperor’s approval to stage the opera.
Opening night unfolded exactly as I had hoped. The audience laughed, whispered, gasped and clapped at all the right moments. Some noblemen shifted uneasily in their velvet seats, unsettled by the sight of an aristocrat being thoroughly outmaneuvered by his own servant. Still, the applause was long and enthusiastic – so long, in fact, that the Emperor eventually imposed a rule limiting the number of curtain calls. I took this as a personal complement.
[i] The Marriage of Figaro (Italian: Le nozze di Figaro; K. 492) is a commedia per musica (opera buffa) in four acts. It premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 1 May 1786. Considered one of the greatest operas ever written, it is a cornerstone of the repertoire and appears consistently among the top ten most frequently performed operas.
[ii] Lorenzo Da Ponte (10 March 1749 – 17 August 1838) was an Italian opera librettist, poet and Roman Catholic priest. He wrote the libretti for 28 operas by 11 composers, including three of Mozart’s most celebrated operas: The Marriage of Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), and Così fan tutte (1790).