The Marriage of Figaro

The Marriage of Figaro

Royal Albert Hall

Tonight I'm taking a detour into Liverpool after work, as I need to collect an Ikea Kallax unit (1x4), that I've bought from someone on Facebook Marketplace. £10 and ready assembled. A couple of light marks. Perfect for my little bedroom which I use to store my own musical instruments and music books, the latter for which I need said shelving. These books have been the best part of two years in plastic bags all over the show.

This evening's Prom begins at the earlier-than-usual time of 18:30, due to the length of the work, (Mozart's Marriage of Figaro) that is going to be performed. I'm driving back home when it begins, but at least I'm with the live broadcast this evening, for the first time since the busy Proms weekend in Bristol.

Let's talk about two irreverent things my mind wanders to when the music starts:

1) The opening tinkle of this piece of work is a famous one, and it always takes me back to the 1971 Gene Wilder film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. There's a scene where Wilder's Wonka [the one and only, IMO] plays a little melody on tiny piano, in order to unlock the door to the chocolate room. Mike Teevee's mother pipes up, proudly declaring it to be the work of 'Rachmaninov,' in an arrogant effort to showcase her cultural knowledge. In actual fact, it's the opening to Mozart's Marriage of Figaro - and this is how I like to remember it's Mozart, hoping I never fall into the same embarrassing trap.

2) Secondly, my mind is floating to the 1993 film Mrs Doubtfire, in which Robin Williams sings 'Figaro, Figaro, Fi-Ga-Ro!', while holding up a funny little music stand. Chat GPT informs me that this is actually a reference to Rossini's Barber of Seville, but it is the same Figaro we're talking about here - the character having been invented by the French playwright, Pierre Beaumarchais. 

As for what is happening at the Royal Albert Hall, I'm speechless. Even though I'm only listening on the radio, the quality of the performance is crystal clear. It's spotless. These are seasoned pros, and I wish I was there to witness it all in raw vision and hearing. Anyone who knows nothing about classical music will tell you that their favourite composers are 'Beethoven and Mozart.' There's nothing wrong with that, and it's obvious these boys are mainstream for good reason: their music gets as close to touching perfection as is humanly possible. 

 

It does drag on a bit though, and I'm left wondering when the interval is going to kick in.

There's the odd titter from the audience which is over my head at home. Something I'm recently starting to take away from Mozart is that he seems to like a bit of playful extravagance. The presenter calls it 'Mozart's Comic Masterpiece', and I think that's a fair conclusion.