Act II

Act II of The Marriage of Figaro starts with the Countess’ heartrending cavatina Porgi amor and ends (a bit of a misnomer – it takes up half of the entire act!) with a finale which often induces a severe rash of complimentary superlatives in commentators.
Here’s Da Ponte’s apposite advice for would-be librettists on the subject of those opera buffa finales : 

The finale, which must remain intimately connected with the opera as a whole, is nevertheless a sort of little comedy or operetta all by itself, and requires its own plot and an unusually high pitch of interest. The finale must chiefly glow with the genius of the conductor, the ability of the singers and the grandeur of the dramatic effect. Recitative is banned from the finale: everybody sings, and every form of singing must be available – adagio, amabile, armonioso, strepitoso, arci-strepitoso, strepitosissimo. For the finale almost always closes in uproar which, in musical jargon, is called the chuisa or rather stretta… The finale must, through the dogma of the theatre, produce on stage every singer of the cast, be there 300 of them, and whether by ones, by twos, by threes or by sixes, tens or sixties; and they must have solos, duets, trios, sextets, thirteenets, sixtyets. If the plot of the drama does not permit, the poet must find a way to make it permit.

Lorenzo da Ponte

Course materials

Libretto:

Italian/English Libretto Act 2

Score:

Act 2, Part 1

Act 2, Part 2

Music: (Schwarzkopf, Taddei, Guilini, Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus)

Act 2

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