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FANDANGO! 

This is a story about love, marriage, the rights of the lord of the house and how this combination plays out for a wedding in a Spanish villa.  Cherubino, the endearing hero finds himself in the middle of the chaos. He narrates the story for the wedding guests who have just arrived. 

The beautiful bride Susanna and her attentive groom, Figaro, are about to be wed.  As the opera opens they sing of how they will arrange their rooms after the wedding.  It soon becomes painfully obvious that Cherubino’s uncle, the lord of the house and Figaro’s master from the old country, plans to seduce Figaro’s bride after the wedding according to some medieval custom. 

Outwitting the Count, the bride Susanna suggests to the Count’s wife, the Countess, that she dress like a bride and use the darkness of the garden to fool the Count into thinking she is Susanna.   All goes well until Figaro also mistakes the Countess for Susanna.  Luckily, Susanna is there too, hiding in the darkness, and reaches out to comfort Figaro.

The Count sees Susanna and realizes that he has been tricked. Comparing the Count to a bull, Cherubino laughs that he is the matador who has exposed the bull’s weakness and injury.  The Count asks for forgiveness, and the Countess forgives him.  Figaro and Susanna are now happily married. Finally, all sing to invite their guests to a celebration.