Lovers and liaisons, lust and laughter aplenty in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro

Sydney, 18 June 2025

Following a successful summer season of The Barber of Seville, opera’s most charming and mischievous character Figaro returns to the Sydney Opera House this July in Mozart’s delightful comedy, The Marriage of Figaro.

This “comic cauldron of sex and social politics” (Limelight) picks up several years from its prequel. The formerly young and romantic Count Almaviva is now a womaniser obsessed with his servant, and Figaro’s fiancé, Susanna, much to the annoyance of Rosina, the now countess, while Dr Bartolo is still hungry for revenge against Figaro for intervening in his plans to marry Rosina.

Opera Australia welcomes international singers Gordon Bintner and Michael Sumuel to the roles of Count Almaviva and Figaro. They’ll be joined by a strong line-up of local stars including Kiandra Howarth and Jane Ede who’ll be sharing the role of The Countess. Siobhan Stagg has returned from her base in Europe to make her OA debut, in the role of Susanna and Emily Edmonds who, following her OA debut as Cinderella in Massenet’s Cendrillon earlier this year, will now take on the trouser role of Cherubino.

Set over the course of a single summer’s day, this opera is filled with drama as the characters, each motivated by their own desires, resort to a hilariously fast-paced spectacle of disguises, duplicity and trickery.

Mozart sets the comedic pace immediately in the overture with strings scurrying all over the scale while cellos and basses murmuring away underneath. Conductor Teresa Riveiro Böhm will make a welcome return to Australia to lead the Opera Australia Orchestra through the ingenious score with its intricate yet tuneful melodies that are performed as trios, quartets and even one brilliant sextet.

Mozart composed The Marriage of Figaro in just six weeks and almost 250 years later, it continues to be hailed as a supreme masterpiece of operatic comedy. Energetic and endlessly tuneful, it features some of Mozart’s most recognisable compositions, undoubtedly why it is one of the most frequently performed operas around the world.

31 July – 27 August | Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House

Creatives
Conductor Teresa Riveiro Böhm
Director David McVicar
Revival Director Andy Morton
Set & Costume Designer Jenny
Tiramani
Lighting Designer David Finn
Cast
Count Gordon Bintner
Countess Kiandra Howarth (31 July –
16 Aug), Jane Ede (19- 27 Aug)
Figaro Michael Sumuel
Susanna Siobhan Stagg
Cherubino Emily Edmonds
Dr Bartolo Richard Anderson
Marcellina Dominica Matthews
Don Basilio Virgilo Marino
Don Curzio Kanen Breen
Barbarina Celeste Lazarenko
Antonio Clifford Plumpton
First Bridesmaid Annabelle Chaffey
Second Bridesmaid Keara Donohoe
Opera Australia Chorus
Opera Australia Orchestra

Performance information
Evenings at 7.00pm
July 31
Aug 6, 8, 13, 19, 21, 27
Saturday Matinee at 12.00pm
August 2, 16
Running time
Approximately 3 hours and 30 minutes
including one interval.
Performed in Italian with English surtitles
Bookings
Adult tickets from $79 (fees may apply)
Opera Australia Box Office
(02) 9318 8200
www.opera.org.au
Joan Sutherland Theatre,
Sydney Opera House