Madison Summers

Writing Assignment #1
January 31st, 2018
The Marriage of Figaro “Porgi Amor” Dissection

The scene in the libretto starts off with the Countess singing, “Grant, love, some relief to my

sorrow to my sighing.” The Countess is expressing that the Count is no longer showing her the love

she desires, so she feels like she has lost a part of him. The Countess then goes on to sing, “Give me

back my treasure, or at least let me die.” The Countess is expressing that she would rather die than

never feel the Count’s love again. The scene ends with the Countess singing, “Grant, love, etc.”

which is her plea for the love of the Count again providing emphasis that she misses how it used to

be with him.

At the beginning of the piece, the orchestra opens with a soft theme (pg. 60) that shows a

light texture and portrays a magical feeling. This opening creates the texture by portraying a picture-

perfect dream, while the Countess knows that the dream is not a reality. It then goes on to show the

audience that the upcoming piece is slower in tempo and conveys a gloomy theme. When the

Countess begins to sing, the notes are long and elongated adding to the theme of the music. Also, the

Countess primarily sings in a foreign key throughout the piece to add to the effect of the mood. There

is a break in the Countess’s singing where only the orchestra is playing (end of pg. 60, beginning of

pg. 61). This allows the orchestra to bring back the light melody that was playing at the beginning of

the libretto. Then, the Countess sings about wanting back the love of the Count which adds a musical

shift in tone. This shift helps portray the feelings of the Countess to the audience that she is lonely

and wants her relationship with the Count to go back to the way it was before.

Near the end of the libretto, the orchestra begins to alter the tone of the music when the

Countess sings, “Give me back my treasure, or at least let me die.” The orchestra adds to the tone by

using a crescendo to increase the volume, and then emphasizing that the Countess would rather die
by playing the notes forte and using a fermata on the final note (pg. 61). Immediately after this

occurs the orchestra’s notes are piano, and the melody from the beginning begins to shine through

which highlights the original theme and tone of the libretto. The Countess expresses that she just

wants the Count’s love back by singing soft and elongated notes, to reestablish her sorrow.

The Paris Opera (PO) and The Royal Opera House (ROH) had different takes on the libretto

scene with the Countess; however, there were some similarities within the scenes. For example, both

versions performed the libretto with only about a thirty second difference. Both actresses also did a

great job portraying that the scene was gloomy through their facial expressions. Finally, during each

scene the Countess was alone while singing, highlighting her loneliness. Throughout the scene there

were many differences between the two versions. For instance, the scenery in the PO version started

off with the Countess in a law shop, called, “Standesamt Etat Civil” and then she walks outside. It is

unclear when she walks outside the law office if she is in the bedroom or under the moonlight. In the

ROH version, the scene looks almost exactly how it was described within the libretto with a door to

the right, a dressing-room to the left, a door in the back leading to the servants’ room, and a window

on one side. Another contrast is the ROH uses props (wedding ring, bed, and desk) to portray the

scene, while the PO used facial expressions and body language to convey how upset the Countess is.

In my opinion I think that the Royal Opera House was more effective at performing the

scene than the Paris Opera. The ROH had a better stage design making it easier to understand where

the Countess was and what was going on during the scene. I also appreciated the ROH’s use of the

wedding ring which effectively showed what the Countess was upset about. If you could not

understand the words, you were able to make an inference that something in the marriage was

upsetting the Countess. She portrayed this by taking the ring on and off multiple times throughout the

libretto. For these reasons, I preferred the ROH performance more than the PO performance.