MOZART: Le Nozze di Figaro

It's a fact of corporate life that the boss 'administrative assistant runs the company, and in Mozart's opera about life in a nobleman's palace, it's the valet who wields real power. Figaro — butler, barber and conspirator — is the node through which all the household's little deceptions and betrayals pass. Mozart's music fuses the cynical charm of Lorenzo Da Ponte's libretto with enormous lyric tenderness: Lying narcissists never had such allure. The Marriage of Figaro is an intricately woven ensemble opera that feels enduringly modern — a sublime situation comedy with a tragic tinge.