After seeing "Marriage of Figaro," I've got some questions.?

Question

For the first time in my life, I saw Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro" last night and it was awesome. I do have some questions regarding the opera itself as well as opera singers.

1. Why is the part of Cherubino played by a young female? My guess is that the character itself is a young, teenage guy and the voice of a young woman would suit the character's changing voice tone.

2. Do opera singers work with one opera for the entire season or do they work on multiple operas for the season?

3. How do opera singers get work? Are there auditions? Does being an opera singer guarantee any benefits (i.e. medical, dental, etc)?

Thanks for the help.

Answer 1

1. It was the practice (or what is usually referred to as "convention") in 18th century opera to use mezzo sopranos to portray the part of adolescent males. Composers felt the mezzo voice gave a better interpretation than using a teenage boy.

2. Opera sings will learn specific roles that are suited to their voice type, or "fach" and perform those roles over and over at different opera houses. Since opera is much more demanding than musical theatre, most opera singers don't work as frequently as a Broadway performer during a given season.

3. Yes, there are auditions. Opera singers are usually under contract with the opera company but the company does not pay them any benefits. The down side to being an opera singer is that there is no union governing solo performers. Opera chorus performers have a union called AGMA.

Answer 2

from across the ocean:

1. you are completely right.
2. multiple operas, up to five or six different roles per season.
3. We audition, repeatedly. the standard contract in a German theater is for two years, and they are not automatically renewed. We have agents, but they do very little for us, besides taking their cut. We do our own phoning, letter writing,contacting, etc.
While under contract, we do have limited medical and dental benefits. chorus and orchestra get full benefits, but the structure of the medical insurance system here is completely different from that in the U.S. There is also a built-in pension fund system here. the money for these is deducted automatically from your pay check every month, so you don't have to write out the checks yourself.
Many soloists prefer to be free-lance, going from theater to theater without a time-limited contract. they get to choose which parts they want to sing ( you sing what you're told to, under contract), and they run the risk of being unemployed more than the rest of us. ( No pain, no gain) They resume responsibility for all insurance and pension funds.

Answer 3

Both answers above are good, but in regards to # 1. Mozart was a devilish guy who loved to push the envelope, and so in writing for Cherubino, he gets to make a girl a guy who is in love with a girl, but then (to make it better) dress the girl who is dressed as a guy as girl so she/he/she can sneak in to be with the woman it loves. So much of Mozart's humor isn't what's on stage but what you realize after the story

In fact, the role of sexuality is one of the most dominant themes in all Mozart operas. I think all of them center on some type of rape, and all of them question the roles of men and women often on multiple levels.

I've gone to my share of operas, and love the dramatic spirits of Verdi and Puccini, but Mozart puts such potent messages in his often silly operas, it's something that keeps you thinking for months after watching it.