The Second Life of Moztrot

by CrackedInkWell

Chapter 33: Le nozze di Figaro (Act 2)

During that ten-minute break, I rushed downstairs, practically leaping over the orchestra and the audience to meet Princess Twilight and her two friends. “Your Majesty,” I greeted the Royal of Amitié. “I’m glad that you, Sunburst and Starlight could come to the opera.”

“Hello again, Mr. Moztrot,” she shook my hoof. “And please, I prefer to be called Twilight when it’s not a formal occasion.”

“You know for a guy that’s putting up an opera that he wrote,” Starlight said, her elbow on the banister, “I kinda expected it to be performed in a theater, you know? Especially when the actors are in modern clothing as well.”

“Hey, I don’t mind it as much,” the wizard with a goat’s beard said as he lifted one of the magic scrolls. “At least I get to read what’s going on. Which reminds me, I should thank you for providing these since my Istallion is terrible. Otherwise, I’d be lost without it.”

“Ah, non preoccuparti, amico mio!” I replied with a grin. “Sono consapevole che non tutti capiranno così che questi nuovi traduttori magici sono davvero utili per aiutare il pubblico a seguire insieme.”

The three of them blinked. Sunburst unrolled the scroll, but he asked anyway. “Uh… Could you repeat that again?”

“He said that he’s aware that not everypony understands the language and he wants the public to follow along.” This was said by a new voice. We looked over to find old Star Swirl making his way towards us. “For the record, Mr. Moztrot, I didn’t need the new translation scrolls as I understood every word that was said in that opera of yours.”

“You can speak Istallion?” I asked in surprise.

Pulling on his beard, he replied, “Well… When you’ve done quite a significant amount of traveling, you have to pick up some of the local languages in order to accomplish daily tasks. After all, I had a journey through Istaly to learn of the ancients.”

“Well for me it was for musical purposes. However, you’re just the pony I wanted to see. What do you think of the first act to my opera?”

“Surprisingly complicated, and that it was rather strange for me to have actors sing everything they say. But other than that, how long does this go?”

“There are four Acts in this,” the Princess answered for me. “A typical performance tends to go for three to four hours.”

The old wizard looked for a moment like he was going to have a heart attack before turning to me. “Why so long?”

“Well…” I chuckled nervously. “It’s a long story. But one that has a good payoff at the end. But you haven’t answered my question yet.”

He shrugged, “I’m torn so far. Don’t get me wrong, you have a gift, no doubt about it. Only I’m a little confused as to why you set your music on a play about servants. I thought that I’d be watching a myth of some kind.”

I giggled, “Ah yes, composers before me had done just that. But here’s the difference between me and them: they get their inspiration from heroes and gods that anyone could do. I on the other hoof chose mine on everyday ponies, which is much more challenging. You weren’t bored by it, were you?”

“Can’t say that I was. At least there were some rather catchy tunes here and there. But at the same time, I did wonder who was this for.”

Glancing at the other audience members, I answered, “You might say that I wrote as a critique of loveless couples.”

“What do you mean?” Starlight inquired. “The ponies that came to see your show?”

“Yes. Now more than ever apparently. Because back when I composed this, I played up the underlying theme of how stallions in the aristocracy (especially married ones) tended to commit adultery behind their spouse’s backs, especially with their servants. And just looking at some of the audience members, it looks like times have changed little.”

Star Swirl rolled his eyes, “Agreed. Even in this enlightened society, there are those that are stupid enough to do something so dishonest.”

“However, the real test is at the ending.”

All four raised their eyebrows, “What do you mean?” Sunburst asked.

“Ah-Ah! Not yet Sunny. You’ll have to wait until Act Four for that.”

“I’ve already read the plot of this opera,” he deadpanned. “You do remember that this opera has been around for two centuries. So I already know how it ends. But what does that have to do with anything?”

Putting a foreleg over, I pointed at the audience chatting amongst themselves. “Look at the faces and the body language. It will tell you everything.”

“Body language?” the princess wondered aloud.

“Why yes. When I was a little colt, Papa had taught me that you need to pay attention to how the audience reacts in order to know what to give and when to stop. But over the years, I could look at a glance at how they reacted to certain parts, which would tell me everything. Why, I’m willing to bet you, that there’s at least… five cases of marital infidelity in this room.”

Sunburst blinked, “Is there anything that you can’t do?”

“Make money,” I laughed at my own joke. “Well, got to get back to the orchestra. Enjoy the rest of the opera.”

“Wait a moment,” Star Swirl raised a hoof. “If you would allow me, can I stand at your podium for just a second? I want to get a closer look at this group of musicians you have up there.”

Oh… Now, this I had to see for myself! Because the very idea of having someone from a thousand years ago give his fresh thoughts on how large the orchestra has grown since his time was something that would be idiotic to refuse. So that’s exactly what I did, I took him up the stairs to the third floor.

By the time we reached the top, I found Wilfred serving water to the orchestra.

“Seems rather crowded up here,” I heard Star Swirl comment. “Are all these ponies necessary?”

“Believe it or not, what you see is the bare minimum of what I needed,” I explained to him. “In fact, when I performed this very opera for the first time, I had just as many because the orchestra pit was cramped as well.”

He managed to look impressed. “You know, even the troubadours from where I come from,” he said stroking his beard, “they too accompanied plays, but never to such an extent as this. And never have I seen the novelty of actors singing all throughout the piece. It seems rather complicated when you have these many ponies performing all at once.”

“It’s an art that has been around, even before I was born. If anything, when I was a teenager, you weren’t considered a real composer unless you wrote a good opera and a symphony.”

The old wizard looked at me confused, “A what?”

“A symphony… do you know what that is?” He only looked at me with a blank expression. My eyes must have spun in childlike glee as I realized something. “Oh by Celestia’s tits! You don’t know what a symphony is!” I giggled like mad – but he slapped me. “Ow! What was that for?”

“For starters, taking any part of my former student’s and current Princess’s anatomy in vain,” Star Swirl growled. “Secondly, why does this matter to you? So what if I don’t know what a symphony is.”

“Ooh-hoho, it’s the height of what a composer could do in roughly four movements. I mean, knowing that now it… well, I just don’t know exactly which one to introduce you to! Already there’s so many that come to mind that it’s difficult to figure out which one would be your first. I mean, not including the forty-one symphonies that are under my belt, there are both old and new ones that I’ve come across that are richly good.”

He gently pushed me aside by the tip of his hoof. “Yes… I’ll let you figure that out. Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to take a closer look at this band before I return to my seat.”

And so, Star Swirl the Slapper proceeded to glance at the instruments and the musicians as he made his cycle around. He did stop at one point, at the keyboard that I conducted from that had the noticeable feature of lacking strings. But around he went, passing the strings, wind, brass, and percussion, looking at them as if they were museum pieces. Once satisfied, he popped himself back to his seat on the first floor with a flash of light.

Overall, it was somewhat disappointing, but at least I was able to learn something useful.

“Wolfgang,” I turned to find Wilfred there with a tray and a pitcher of water. “Everypony’s ready for the second act.”

“Oh! Yes yes,” I nodded as I had my fill of water before returning to the keyboard.

Thus, began the second act. Down below, two closet doors were cleared aside while a fainting couch was brought in and one of the windows is cracked open. There on the couch was the actress playing the role of the Countess. She is about the same age as the Count, with a mane of ebony and a coat of cream. The unicorn was in a morning robe but had an air of melancholy about her as both of her hooves covered her face.

Lifting up my hooves, I led the orchestra into the second act that established the atmosphere. After the first few chords to let the audience know that it had begun, the violins let out empathetic sighs. Trills of strings and soft clarinets that bounced around the rotunda helped lift the mask of her true feelings for a brief moment. Like the actress, the music too was on the verge of crying.

Then, like a prayer, her voice was heard. “Give me back my loved one, or in mercy let me die.” Even though she repeated this simple phrase several times, the actress playing the Countess was convincing in the lament that she had lost the love of her darling husband who lusted after another mare. No matter how many times I heard her sing this aria -- and another in act three -- I couldn’t help but wonder if she had undergone the same experience that her character was facing. Just hearing that voice practically tempted me to just rush down to give her a hug and tell her that everything was going to be all right.

Out from one of the closet doors, Susanna peeked in. The Countess bade her enter and told her the rest of what was going on with her spouse.

“So he tried to make love to you?” her lady inquired.

“His lordship doesn’t pay such compliments to girls like me.” Her maid replied, “He came to offer me money.”

“Cruel stallion!” the Countess cried. “He loves me no longer!”

“Yet how can he be jealous of you?”

“That is the way of modern husbands – on principle unfaithful, by nature fickle, and by pride all jealous.” With a sigh, she added, “But if Figaro loves you, only he could-” Before she could finish her thought, Figaro comes in shining with confidence. He tells the two ladies that he made the count think that he was agreeing to his lordship’s advances upon his fiancé, where in actuality he had formed a cunning plan.

“By Basilio, I’ve sent a letter warning his lordship,” Figaro explained. “Of an assignation you’ve made with a lover during the ball.”

“Heavens!” the Countess exclaimed. “What do I hear? To inflame the jealousy of that stallion!”

“All the better,” he grinned. “the more easily we can harass him, confuse him, embroil him, foil his designs, fill him with suspicions, and make him realize that this new game he’s playing on me can be played on him; so he’ll waste time in the fruitless search. Then, all of a sudden, without him having made any plan to prevent it, our wedding will be upon us, and in your presence, he’d not dare to oppose it.”

“True,” Susanna agreed. “But in his stead, Marcellina will oppose it.”

“Wait,” Figaro added. “Let the Count know that in the evening you’ll wait in the garden. We’ll get young Cherubino, whom I advised not to leave yet, to go there in your place, dressed as a mare. If monsieur is caught by milady, this is the only way by which he can be made to grant her wishes.”

The two mares agreed with this plan. Since the Count was off hunting for a few hours, it ought to give them enough time to disguise the boy. He sent him up at once. After Figaro has left, the Countess expressed to her maid that she feels sorry for the page-colt for being involved in this mess. If anything, she wonders how come that he didn’t come straight to her.

Cherubino walks in, having his new, proper uniform on that matched those of the Royal Guards in training. Susanna bids him enter, “Forward march, my gallant Captain.”

“Don’t call me by that horrid title!” the colt replies. “It reminds me that I am forced to leave a godmother so kind.”

The Countess finally smiled, “One as beautiful?”

“Ah, yes, indeed.”

Susanna echoed what the colt said, “Hypocrite! Sing to my lady the song you gave me this morning.” Her ladyship asked who wrote it. “Look! He’s blushing all over his face.” The countess ordered her to take out her guitar so that she may accompany him.

“I’m all a-tremble,” the page-colt admitted nervously. “But if my lady wishes…”

“Yes, indeed she does,” Susanna teased as she retrieved the instrument. “Don’t keep her waiting.”

To the pizzicato of the strings and a gentle wind that carried the melody, Cherubino prepared himself. Taking deep breaths to calm himself, and with the sound of innocence, he sang his aria with perfection. “You ladies who know what love is, see if it is what I have in my heart. All that I feel I will explain; since it is new to me, I don’t understand it. I have a feeling full of desire, which now is pleasure, now is torment. Freeze, then I feel my spirit all ablaze. And the next moment I turn again to ice. I see for relief outside myself, I know not who holds it nor what it is. I sigh and I groan without meaning to, I flutter and tremble without knowing why. I find no peace by night or day, but yet to languish thus is sheer delight. You ladies who know what love is, see if it is what I have in my heart.”

All around, the foyer erupted in applause for the little singer’s efforts. Even whistles were heard, on top of the shouts of “Bravo!” The orchestra too stomped their hooves or tapped their bows on the railings. I too was caught up as I leaned over to shout, “Bravo! Che bella voce!”

Even the countess agreed with the audience. Yes, he does have such a lovely voice.

“Oh, I must say,” Susanna replies. “Everything he does, he does well.”

Yet, even as they praised him, the two mares sprang their plan into action and began to dress him up. But as they did so, they found a slip of paper that had the colt’s commission written up by Basilio – albeit hastily, as there was no seal upon it. They quickly tried to come up with the proper clothing to disguise him, from a cap to cover up his mane to teaching him how to act like a convincing mare.

But just then, disaster struck. Her husband came knocking on her door. So in a panic, they shoved the poor colt into one of the closets while her maid retreated into the other. From the other side of the front door, the Count became suspicious as he wasn’t sure to whom she was talking to.

As soon as she opened the front door, her husband asked, “What does this mean? You never used to lock yourself in your room.”

“I know, but… I was trying…” she fidgeted, trying to come up with an answer. “Some clothes on. Susanna was with me, but now she’s gone to her room.”

“In any case, you seem distressed.” The Count remarked as he used his magic to take out a piece of paper from his overcoat pocket. “Look at this letter.”

She did, and the wife turned pale. “Heavens! It’s the letter Figaro wrote!” Just then, from the closet that the colt was pushed in, the sound of something falling over was obviously heard. The Countess froze while her spouse asked what that was, but she replied that she didn’t hear anything.

“You must be deep in thought,” he said with a raised eyebrow before he wore a scowl. “There’s someone there.”

“Ah yes,” the wife lied. “Susanna, of course!” The Count pointed out that she said that she went into the servant’s quarters. “To hers or mine, I didn’t notice.”

The longer her husband questioned her, the more I noticed that in the audience, some of the couples were exchanging death glares. Others elbowed one another as if to say, “Remind you of somepony?” As the drama went on to the point that the Countess was knocking on the closet door to order Susanna to come out, the maid peered out from the other closet door before slipping behind a curtain. The wife forbade her husband to look on the grounds that Susanna was trying to put on her wedding gown. Yet, the Count suspects that his wife might be cheating on him and is hiding her lover in the closet. The two quarreled until the husband decided that he will get an ax to chop the door down.

But before he leaves, he gets an idea: “So that my suspicions shall be completely quieted, first I’ll lock the other doors.” He does so, “You will have the goodness to come with me. Let me offer you my arm.” Lifting a foreleg, he bade the Countess come along.

Once they left, Susanna came out from her hiding spot to free Cherubino. At this point, it was clear that the colt had to leave at once somehow. Fortunately, there was an option: the open window. Despite the maid’s protests of hurting himself, the colt decided to take his chances and leap out. Thankfully, he was not harmed. So taking this opportunity, Susanna went into the “dressing room” to lock herself in. With a smile, she says, “Let the blusterer come, I’m ready for him.”

The Count and Countess returned, the former holding an ax. Just as he threatened to chop the door down, his wife gave in and tells the truth. She confesses that she and Susanna were plotting a prank on him, using the page colt to trick him with.

“Am I destined to find that page where I go?” her husband asked in suppressed rage. “What? Hasn’t he gone? The scoundrels! This explains my doubts, the confusion, the plot of which the letter warned me.” Tossing his spouse to the side, he now pounds at the door. “Now out you come, you imp of Discord, you villain, without delay!”

One duet later, the door does in fact open, to reveal Susanna there; stunning both the couple. With a grin on her face, she bows and says to them: “My lord! Why this astonishment? Draw your sword upon the page colt. Here you see the imp of Discord.”

Now with the both of them completely perplexed, the maid insisted that the Count look in the closet and see that she is indeed alone. As he did so, Susanna reassured the wife that the colt is indeed safe, but in the meantime, she needs her to play along.

The Count, now feeling like he’s made an ass of himself, begs the ladies for their forgiveness. “But to play such a jest is sheer cruelty.”

“Your madness deserves no pity,” both mares replied.

Even when he tried to tell the Countess that he was sorry, she threw his words from their argument back at him. But when he turned to the maid in hopes to calm her anger, she replies: “This is the punishment for your suspicions.”

However, it is his wife who dealt the devastating blow when her husband entreated her. “Cruel stallion! I am no longer she, but the wretched object of your neglect, whom you delight to make me suffer.”

But both mares eventually felt that he had enough of their scorn, they explain to the count that the page colt in the closet was meant as a test. When the Count asked about the letter he received, they told him that Figaro wrote it and was sent by Basilio. Just as he called them traitors, both mares replied, “He who can’t forgive others doesn’t deserve to be forgiven.” Thus, the husband wished to make peace with them.

That was when Figaro enters the foyer, letting the Count know that the musicians and dancers for their wedding have arrived. Now that he has arrived, the husband asked him to stay in order to put a doubt to rest. Levitating the letter he received, he asked his valet who wrote it. And to the mare’s paling faces, he said that he has no idea who it’s from. Their lie was on the edge of being discovered. “Hold your tongue, stupid,”both mares urgently advised Figaro. “This comedy must be ended.”

“Then to end it happily according to theatrical practice,” Figaro reasoned. “Let a marriage ceremony now follow.” So the couple pleaded with the Count not to refuse their wish.

Before the Count could do anything, a gardener came in, complaining that someone had jumped out of this window and ruined the carnations. The other three try to shoo the gardener away (accusing him of drunkenness) before the unicorn can figure out that it might have been the page. Explaining away that it was Figaro that had jumped out of the window because he accidentally knocked a few letters out of the window and fell. One of which was a commission letter that the colt gave him a while ago, but it lacked a seal.

Yet, the act wasn’t quite over. Then busted into the room the music teacher Basilio, Dr. Bartolo, and his housekeeper, Marcellina – all asking for an audience with the Count. Before Figaro could object, his lord told him to be silent so that he may know why they’ve come.

“This stallion has made a contract to marry me,” the housekeeper explained. “And I insist that he honors it.”

The ancient doctor added that he represents as her counsel to argue her legitimate plea. Basilio informed the Count that what they say is true because he witnessed Figaro signing a contract that the housekeeper lent him money on the promise of marriage. Of course, there were objections, but the unicorn repeated that he will judge on the matter before turning to them, asking to see this contract.

As he read through it, on one side of the foyer, confusion, and dread – while on the other, triumph and arrogance. Thus, in this chorus of conflicting emotions of success and shock, the second act ends. Under the applause of the audience, I called again for a ten-minute intermission.

Comments

[Voltaje]

Ok, i somehow never saw nor heard the nozze de fígaro, mostly because i concentrated in don giovanni, the serrallo, the magic flute, and mozarts piano concertos, so now i feel like wachting it XD; about stars will, i wonder how would he take beethoven synphonies, considering they are more complex, or wagner, or Chaikovski, is there a Rajmáninov in this world? for that matter, is there a wagner?, considering that there wasnt a beethoven in equestria?

[Dan]

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdNyC-Gc67LxYHxN3VZc-5anjyOjV6-m5

CLassic.

pre00.deviantart.net/3cb2/th/pre/i/2012/274/2/f/starswirl_the_bearded__magic_school_for_princesses_by_t_3000-d5gimwq.png

[Dan]

8740061
I would recommend The Queen of Spades and Rigoletto and Tosca and La Boheme.

Or, if you prefer to not need a translated libretto or subtitles, go with Gilbert and Sullivan.