Bishop, arr.: Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro

Series: 19th and Early 20th Centuries  Publisher: A-R Editions
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Henry Rowley Bishop
Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro
Adapted for Covent Garden, 1819

Edited by Christina Fuhrmann

N055 Bishop, arr.: Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro
978-0-89579-720-9 Full Score (2012) 9x12, xix + 270 pp.
$252.00
In stock
SKU
N055
This volume provides the first modern edition of Henry Rowley Bishop’s adaptation of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro for Covent Garden in 1819. Bishop changed the original drastically. He set it in English (largely basing the text on Thomas Holcroft’s The Follies of a Day), replaced recitative with spoken dialogue, reduced four acts to three, divested Count Almaviva of music and introduced Fiorello from Il barbiere di Siviglia to sing instead, cut over half the score, inserted twelve new pieces, and drew additional material from other operas by Mozart and Rossini. Although Bishop’s adaptations have endured scholarly ridicule and neglect, they provide an intriguing window into operatic practice not only in early-nineteenth-century England but in continental Europe and the United States as well. They also serve as important predecessors to musical theater. Bishop’s Figaro is not only of historical interest, as its spoken dialogue, shortened length, and reduced musical complexity would be ideal for theater companies and small college programs that wish to stage a version of the opera.
Overture
Act I
  No. 1. Duetto (Susanna, Figaro): “Fourteen, sixteen, eighteen, twenty”
  No. 2. Song (Figaro): “Count Almaviva’s a compound of evil”
  No. 3. Song (Susanna): “The youth in his blooming array”
  No. 4. Duetto (Susanna, Barbarina): “I’ve seen all your flirting!”
  No. 5. Song (Cherubino): “Oh, this love!”
  No. 6. Chorus: “Receive, noble master”
  No. 7. Finale (Susanna, Barbarina, Marcellina, Cherubino, Figaro, Basil, Chorus): “Ah! my lord, to fearful dangers”
Act II
  No. 8. Duetto (Susanna, Fiorello): “Ah! deign a kind reply”
  No. 9. Song (Antonio): “In early life, I took a wife”
  No. 10. Song (Countess): “Love! ever leave me”
  No. 11. Duetto (Susanna, Countess): “‘How gently’”
  No. 12. Song (Susanna): “Ne’er can the rose”
  No. 13. Song (Susanna): “Come hither!”
  No. 14. Song (Countess): “All these jealous doubts removing”
  No. 15. Finale (Susanna, Countess, Marcellina, Fiorello, Antonio, Figaro, Sebastian, Basil): “The notary now requests to enter”
Act III
  No. 16. The Bolero
  No. 17. Pastoral March
  No. 18. Pas de Deux
  No. 19. Melodramatic Music Previous to Duetto
  No. 20. Duetto (Susanna, Countess): “Oh! take this gift”
  No. 21. Villagers March
  No. 22. Song (Fiorello): “When love subdues the youthful heart”
  No. 23. Song (Countess): “Aid me! ye pitying pow’rs!”
  No. 24. Trio (Susanna, Figaro, Antonio): “Silence, silence, he may overhear us”
  No. 25. Finale (Susanna, Countess, Marcellina, Barbarina, Cherubino, Fiorello, Figaro, Antonio, Basil, Chorus): “Each doubt and fear now ending”
 
Appendix: Items from the Autograph Score
No. 6a. “Receive, noble master”: Trumpet and Clarinet Parts
No. 7a. “Ah! my lord, to fearful dangers”: Orchestral Score, Sections 2–3
No. 7b. “Ah! my lord, to fearful dangers”: String Parts, Section 5
No. 7c. “Ah! my lord, to fearful dangers”: Trombone Part
No. 10a. Fragment Possibly Intended for “Love! ever leave me”
No. 15a. “The notary now requests to enter”: Trombone Part
No. 15b. Fragment Possibly Used in Section 1 of  “The notary”
No. 15c. Fragment Possibly Used in Section 3 of  “The notary”
No. 15d. Fragment Possibly Used in Section 3 of  “The notary”
No. 15e. Fragment Possibly Used in Section 5 of  “The notary”
No. 15f. Fragment Possibly Used in Section 5 of  “The notary”
No. 15g. Fragment Possibly Used in Section 1 of  “The notary”
No. 15h. Fragment Possibly Used in Section 2 of  “The notary”
No. 19a. Melodramatic Music Previous to Duetto: Orchestral Score
Fragment of Mozart’s “Cosa sento! tosto andate”