After a long search for a comic opera subject, Mozart was thrilled with Beaumarchais’s play Le mariage de Figaro, ou La folle journée (The Marriage of Figaro, or The crazy day), especially knowing that Lorenzo da Ponte would do justice to the libretto. Mozart counted on the audience being intrigued since the play had been banned throughout the Hapsburg Empire for its “subversive” elements. After the censors had been convinced the that portions had been altered sufficiently, The Marriage of Figaro opened on May 1, 1786. Despite rival cabals, the opera won a certain acclaim, but its full ascendancy as “the perfect comic opera” began with the Prague production the following year. 

All of the action takes place on the marriage day of Figaro and Susanna, servants to Count and Countess Almaviva. The main plot concerns the Count’s flirtations with Susanna in connection with the droit du seigneur (his supposed right as a noble to have his way with her on her first night of marriage) and her clever foiling of his advances. The eventual humiliation of this member of the aristocracy by his “inferiors”—even in its toned-down guise—greatly appealed to the rising middle class audience.

Mozart’s extremely well-known Overture admirably sets up the intrigues and feverish activity of the wedding day beginning with the merest rustle. A theme for winds and horns—now paired cellos—follows immediately, and suddenly a glorious cap to both opening phrases bursts onto the scene. The second theme group shows the same quick mood changes, building to a climax with no real development section before the reprise begins with the hushed busy theme of the opening. Mozart had at one time composed a middle lyrical contrasting section before the recapitulation, but ripped the sheet out of the finished score, preferring to keep the moods of humor and gaiety uninterrupted.

This afternoon’s four-cello version of Mozart’s popular Overture was arranged by cellist Douglas B. Moore, professor emeritus at Williams College where he taught and often chaired the music department from 1970 to 2007. He also appeared with orchestra and at festivals across the United States and has published more than forty original arrangements for from two to eight cellos. Yo-Yo Ma, Maximilian Hornung, the Boston Cello Quartet, and the Vienna Philharmonic Cellos on a televised New Year’s concert are just a few who have featured his cello arrangements. Taking into account the expansive range and agility of his instrument, Moore considers his multiple-voice cello arrangements especially well-suited to pieces originally for orchestra or band.

—©Jane Vial Jaffe