FELDER’S NEW FILM A LUSH LOOK AT THE CREATION OF MOZART’S ‘FIGARO’
For the latest musical film in his “Live From Florence” series, playwrightpianist Hershey Felder has given fans of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart a unique flyon-the-wall look at how the composer’s greatest opera, “The Marriage of Figaro,” was born.
Filmed in Florence’s lavishly restored 18th-century Palazzo Gianfigliazzi Bonaparte with an international opera cast and Florence’s Maggio Musicale Orchestra, “Mozart and Figaro in Vienna” is a behindthe-scenes story of the opera’s creation. It’s told from the perspective of Lorenzo Da Ponte, the now-forgotten Viennese court poet who wrote the Italian librettos for Mozart’s “Figaro,” “Don Giovanni” and “Cosi fan tutte,” the last of which will be presented by San Diego Opera in February.
The 106-minute film is being presented as a fundraiser for nine U.S. theaters, including San Diego Repertory Theatre, as well as the Goldstar and TheatreMania ticketing organizations.
While recognized today as one of the greatest operas in history, “The Marriage of Figaro” might never have come to be, at least according to Da Ponte’s memoirs, which Felder used to write his screenplay. According to Da Ponte, who Felder plays in the film, he had to coax Vienna’s progressive Emperor Joseph II to overlook the opera’s somewhat scandalous source material, Beaumarchais’ 1784 French play about a philandering Spanish count, in order for Mozart to get royal approval for its premiere.
The film opens at the end of Da Ponte’s life, where he’s the forgotten and impoverished owner of a small Italian bookstore. Speaking directly to the camera, Felder’s Da Ponte tells a bookshop visitor the story of working at the right hand of Mozart 52 years before. The film travels back to the early rehearsals for “Figaro” in Vienna. Da Ponte has invited the Emperor (played by American actor Jay Natelle) to see the work in progress, describing to Joseph the characters and songs, which are then performed by an excellent troupe of opera singers, including American baritones Nathan Gunn and Timothy Renner, Russian soprano Ekaterina Siurina, American soprano Hila Plitmann and American mezzo-soprano Xenia Tziouvaras.
Mozart is played by Florentine conductor Filippo Ciabatti, who leads the orchestra throughout the film but has very few spoken lines. That is the only disappointment with “Mozart and Figaro in Vienna.” Although he’s in almost every scene, Mozart remains a mystery to the end. In the film, Da Ponte describes the composer as the “greatest genius” he’s ever met, who could compose perfect lines of finished music almost instantaneously — “Figaro” was completed in six weeks — but almost nothing about his process, personality or personal struggles. Nonetheless, it’s a fascinating backstage story on a great opera, with English subtitles for all the arias, and fine opening and closing performances of Mozart works by Felder on piano and period harpsichord.
“Mozart and Figaro in Vienna” is streaming on demand for $50 at hersheyfelder.net.