On May 1, 1786, Mozart conducted the world premiere of The Marriage of Figaro in Vienna. 240 years later, it remains one of the most performed operas on earth. In this episode, I reflect on what made Mozart’s approach to opera revolutionary: music so precisely tailored to each character that you cannot swap their melodies. And in the opera’s very first scene, before the plot has barely begun, Mozart does something even more remarkable. He lets two characters sing in harmony to tell you something the text never says.

The Friday FIVE is a weekly five-minute podcast series from Musically Speaking that features music commentary, examples, and recommendations from Jarrod Richey.Here’s John Mason Hodges’ talk at New Saint Andrews College on this exact subject: https://youtu.be/9OSFCcvtcFc

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