'The Marriage of Figaro' says 'I do' to a comedic romance

“Who is who?”

Mistaken identities and marital hijinks take the stage in “The Marriage of Figaro.”

The opera follows Figaro and his bride-to-be, Susanna, through love, lies and loyalty as they prepare to say “I do.”

Liv Redpath is back for her fourth summer at the Santa Fe Opera, and will be taking on the role of Susanna in “The Marriage of Figaro.” Redpath finds the comedic tone of the opera involved a different type of acting.

“It’s the quick wittedness that you have to have to react on a dime and to kind of change your plan, given that most of this opera is, much of it is about kind of plots and plans,” Redpath said. “We have to trick different people. You have to kind of always be on and always be thinking.”

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote “The Marriage of Figaro,” and Redpath notes that when it was first premiered in France, its topic was a social taboo and caused quite a stir.

“The reason they caused this stir is because it’s a critique of the class system and privilege, and it’s also just simply the fact that it features lower-class people on stage,” she said.

Redpath finds the Santa Fe Opera’s outdoor stage offers a sort of freedom you don’t find at other opera houses.

“You’re not enclosed and you’re literally in nature, and you’re watching the sunset as you wait for your cue to go on for the next scene,” Redpath said.

According to Redpath, Susanna, spends the majority of time on the stage with very few moments in the wings. It gave her a different perspective, as Susanna is the character who interacts with everyone else the most.

“I think the role gives a lot back to you as you experience it over years of your career. So this is my first stab at it,” Redpath said. “I can tell, you know, it has so much to give, so much that you can explore within yourself, about how it is that you communicate with other people.”

She particularly enjoys the happy ending her character gets and how she has a chance to relax after a night of mischief and deceitful mind games.

“She spends so much of the opera, in a way, trying to help other people and to make everything work out. And you don’t get to always see just her pure kind of love for her fiance,” Redpath said. “From Mozart, for me, that’s a gift to the character of Susanna. Finally, at the end of quite a long evening for her, she gets to kind of let go and be knowingly naive and choose that for herself.”

Redpath thinks that this is one of Mozart’s best operas, saying it was “perfectly written.”

“Mozart was a millennial genius. So it stands to reason that the way that he was able to craft this, not just as music, but music as drama,” Redpath said. “I think it is what really makes this opera tick. It’s like this amazing wind-up music box of musical drama that plays out in perfect dramatic time.”

“The Marriage of Figaro” opens at the Santa Fe Opera on Saturday, June 28, and runs through Aug. 22.