Description

Around 1842 – 1843, Liszt began composing a Fantasia on Themes from Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro (K.492) and Don Giovanni (K.527), catalogued as S.697 He drew …on two arias from Figaro: “Non più andrai” from Le Nozzi di Figaro (Act ) and  “Voi che sapete” from Cherubino (Act II). He also sketched material from the minuet in the Act I finale of Don Giovanni. The manuscript was left incomplete at his death, with missing transitions and an unfinished ending. Subsqeuently, Ferruccio Busoni, a great pianist-composer and Liszt devotee, prepared a performing edition. He focused only on the Figaro material, omitting the Don Giovanni section entirely. Published in 1912 as Fantasia on Two Motives from W.A. Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, this version is often nicknamed the “Figaro Fantasy”. A typical performance lasts about 13–15 minutes. It’s a brilliant example of the 19th-century tradition of operatic paraphrase, where pianists transformed beloved operatic themes into dazzling concert works.