Whatever happened to Act III?

After the high-spirited close of Act II, Act III comes as something of a surprise. There’s no dip in the astonishing quality of the music (according to his wife, Constanze, the sextet in this third act was the composer’s favourite piece of his own music) but Mozart and Da Ponte’s sense of the dramatic seems to have gone slightly awry.

This week we’ll examine the possible reasons for this, and start our investigation with personnel of the original cast:

The Countess:  Luisa Laschi
Susanna:   Nancy Storace
Cherubino:  Dorotea Bussani
Marcellina:  Maria Mandini
Barbarina:  Anna Gottlieb
The Count:  Stefano Mandini
Figaro: Francesco Benucci
Bartolo/Antonio: Francesco Bussani
Don Basilio/Don Curzio: Michael Kelly

Course materials

Libretto:

Italian/English Libretto Act 2

Italian/English Libretto Act 3 Part 1

Score:

Act 2, Part 1

Act 2, Part 2

Act 3, Part 1

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

Act 2

Act 3

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