Why start in the middle of something? -- 2001-2002 Cultural Literacy Class Forum

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Date Posted: 09:11:17 01/06/02 Sun
Author: Laura
Subject: Why start in the middle of something?

When Mr. Fornale mentioned in class that "Le Nozze di Figaro" is taken from the action that happens in the later part of Beumarchais' play "Le Mariage de Figaro," I thought it odd. Was anyone else thinking the same thing?

I looked at the year in which the opera debuted--1786, and then thought about that time frame with the theme of the oper. The opera depicts the common man being able to outsmart an artisocrat, and in the play itself such a theme seems to have more tragic undertones than the comical opera. Could Mozart have been influenced by the events of the American Revolution of only less than a decade earlier, which basically is an underdog (colonies) outsmarting a higher authority (Great Britain). Could the opera have influenced the French Revolution, which occurred only three years later? It possibly could have seeing as one knows that Beaumarchais was involved with such ideas as the common people over a rigid, upper class--proof seen in his intervening to the king of France during the Revolutionary War on America's behalf. In addition, one knows that the play by Beumarchais was banned in several monarch-ruled countries, and the opera also had such threats looming over its head.

So basically, my humble opinion is that perhaps Mozart chose to start in the middle of the play because that section of it most appealed to people of the times. (Or maybe not. I could just be reading too much into things again.)

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Replies:

Re: Why start in the middle of something? -- Meghan Kurta, 10:13:47 01/06/02 Sun