(Amadeus). Today Mozart's exquisite Le Nozze di Figaro delights and moves audiences everywhere, long after its 1786 birth into tumultuous times. The original Beaumarchais play raised a firestorm in France, then on the brink of revolution, with its dangerous commentary on class relations. However, Lorenzo Da Ponte carefully omitted anything political from his opera libretto; what remained, when joined with Mozart's sublime and penetrating music, was a witty yet profound tale of infatuation, heartache, scheming, and tenderness, where complex emotions are laid bare and everyone, regardless of class, is equally vulnerable to the powers of love. Figaro continues the story of The Barber of Seville several years later, in a single "day of madness." Count Almaviva's love, Rosina, is now his long-suffering countess, and the barber Figaro, now the count's valet, is about to marry Susanna, the countess's maid. But the couple-to-be must first deal with two obstacles: a demand that Figaro pay his debt to an older woman or marry her instead, and the count's determination to bed Susanna on her wedding night. Suspicions fly, plots are hatched, narrow escapes abound, and connivers receive their due. Love and forgiveness finally bring order to the craziness, and a day filled with torment and worry ends in joy.

Here at last is the definitive opera story collection, the only one now authorized by the Metropolitan Opera. Written by the associate editor of Opera News magazine, the volume includes the complete plots of 150 different operas, biographical information on all of the 72 composers represented, easy access to the stories through both a table of contents and an index, and a foreword by Peter Allen.

(Amadeus). For a long time, Cosi fan tutte was considered scandalous which is not entirely surprising, if you look at its story. After seeing their fiances, Guglielmo and Ferrando, go off to war, two sisters, Fiordiligi and Dorabella, all too rapidly overcome their grief and agree to marry two attractive strangers within the space of just a couple days. Little do the sisters know that the strangers are in fact those same fiances in disguise! The whole thing is a plot masterminded by a cynical old philosopher, Don Alfonso, and a clever maid, Despina. Scandalous or not, Cosi fan tutte has remained one of opera's most contemporary comedies.

(Amadeus). For a long time, Cosi fan tutte was considered scandalous which is not entirely surprising, if you look at its story. After seeing their fiances, Guglielmo and Ferrando, go off to war, two sisters, Fiordiligi and Dorabella, all too rapidly overcome their grief and agree to marry two attractive strangers within the space of just a couple days. Little do the sisters know that the strangers are in fact those same fiances in disguise! The whole thing is a plot masterminded by a cynical old philosopher, Don Alfonso, and a clever maid, Despina. Scandalous or not, Cosi fan tutte has remained one of opera's most contemporary comedies.

Children can discover the magic of Mozart by pressing the buttons in this enchanting sound book. The animal orchestra travel through the forest playing five different pieces of Mozart's music and telling the other animals a little bit about the extraordinary man who wrote them. The beautiful illustrations and spellbinding music are a perfect introduction to one of the greatest composers of all time.

Is The Marriage of Figaro just about Figaro? Is Don Giovanni’s story the only one—or even the most interesting one—in the opera that bears his name? For generations of critics, historians, and directors, it’s Mozart’s men who have mattered most. Too often, the female characters have been understood from the male protagonist’s point of view or simply reduced on stage (and in print) to paper cutouts from the age of the powdered wig and the tightly cinched corset. It’s time to give Mozart’s women—and Mozart’s multi-dimensional portrayals of feminine character—their due. In this lively book, Kristi Brown-Montesano offers a detailed exploration of the female roles in Mozart’s four most frequently performed operas, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, and Die Zauberflöte. Each chapter takes a close look at the music, libretto text, literary sources, and historical factors that give shape to a character, re-evaluating common assumptions and proposing fresh interpretations. Brown-Montesano views each character as the subject of a story, not merely the object of a hero’s narrative or the stock figure of convention. From amiable Zerlina, to the awesome Queen of the Night, to calculating Despina, all of Mozart’s women have something unique to say. These readings also tackle provocative social, political, and cultural issues, which are used in the operas to define positive and negative images of femininity: revenge, power, seduction, resistance, autonomy, sacrifice, faithfulness, class, maternity, and sisterhood. Keenly aware of the historical gap between the origins of these works and contemporary culture, Brown-Montesano discusses how attitudes about such concepts—past and current—influence our appreciation of these fascinating representations of women.