‘The Marriage of Figaro’ at the Rome Opera
The idyllic scenes, reminiscent of the works of Watteau and Fragonard, are tinged with shades of white and beige in Christian Schmidt’s set designs
by Giorgia Basili
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The idyllic 18th-century atmospheres of *The Marriage of Figaro*, as depicted by Watteau and Fragonard, take on shades of white and beige in Christian Schmidt’s set and costume design, resulting in a decidedly more subdued effect.
Claus Guth’s staging — first performed in 2006 for the Salzburg Festival — suggests psychological nuances that are conveyed through the play of light in the beautiful opening scene, in which warm rays of sunlight stream in through the left-hand side window, casting long shadows into the entrance hall. The more introspective moments, on the other hand, are rendered through dim lighting, particularly when Cherubino’s double enters the scene.
Guth studied philosophy, German language and literature, and theatre studies in Munich, before specialising in theatre and opera direction. He made his name at the Salzburg Festival with his productions centred on Mozart and his cycle based on Da Ponte’s librettos, whilst his productions of Pelléas et Mélisande and Daphne at the Frankfurt Opera earned him the FAUST Prize.
The setting remains almost the same throughout all four acts; it is only in the second act that the staircase is replaced by an uncluttered room with a window and doors to allow the famous ‘three-door’ scene to take place: the Countess, Cherubino, who does not want to be discovered as her lover, Susanna – his accomplice – and the unsuspecting Count.
Minimalism
Whilst the minimalism of the scenes aims to bring out the individual character of each element of the narrative more clearly, it risks dampening the verve of the Mozart–Da Ponte partnership, creating an effect of excessive abstraction. A scene stripped of objects — for example, the wedding bed — and of tangible points of reference — there is only the curtain and the window — complicates the interpretation of the actions, and even conceptualises what might otherwise be left implicit, in favour of a context that is difficult to grasp, amidst the plot’s twists, subterfuge, liaisons and revelations.
