Susanna e la Contessa

Abstract

Susanna and the CountessThe article examines the arias of the two main female characters of Mozart’sLe nozze di Figaro, starting from the data offered by the sketches,revisions in the autograph score, discarded versions and replacing arias.The musical analysis provides hints for dramatic considerations: contraryto the prevailing opinion, the relationship between the two womenis not only one of solidarity and “sisterhood”, but also, in a latent butnoticeable way, of tension, in which the difference in class and agecomes into play, as does sexual rivalry.