The Marriage of Figaro, Mozart’s great comedic opera, was composed in 1786. With the librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, Mozart based the opera on Pierre Beaumarchais’ stage comedy of the same name. Although the play was banned in Vienna for a time due to its satirization of the upper class, the opera wasn’t and became one of Mozart’s most famous works.

What one might call the sequel to Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville,” The Marriage of Figaro features a fast-paced plot with lots of mistaken identities and surprises. Figaro, who is Count Almaviva’s valet, is preparing to marry Susanna. The Count is interested in Susanna as well, even as he keeps his wife from the attentions of Cherubino, the Count’s young and amorous page. Figaro, Susanna and the Countess conspire together to expose the Count’s lechery, but sometimes their tricks turn on them unexpectedly.

This production utilizes a new English translation by Jeremy Sams and is set in the fanciful Art Deco style of the 1930s Spanish Riviera, when the stylish nobility and the professional servants who served them still existed. Full of comic twists and turns, plots and counterplots, The Marriage of Figaro is a grand comic opera from one of the greatest composers in history.

The cast includes Tyler Thompson as Figaro, Jason Lee as the Count, and double cast are Shannon Kauble and Crystal Wu as the Countess, and Caroline Kil and Amy Caldwell as Susanna.

Ann Sheffield is scenic designer; Monica French is costume designer; Eric Wenzel is lighting designer; and makeup designer is Joy Shannon.