Think you don’t know any opera? There’s a good chance you’ve come across Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro — which is packed full of absolute bangers — and didn’t even realise…
The Shawshank Redemption
Remember *that* iconic scene in multiple Academy Award-nominated prison drama The Shawshank Redemption (1994)? Where Andy (Tim Robbins) locks himself in the office in defiance and broadcasts opera over the prison’s PA system?
“I have no idea, to this day, what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don’t wanna know. Some things are best left unsaid. I’d like to think they were singing about something so beautiful it can’t be expressed in words and makes your heart ache because of it.” — Red (Morgan Freeman)
This beautiful duet is Susanna and Countess Almaviva’s ‘Sull’aria’ from Act III of The Marriage of Figaro — where they are in fact plotting how to entrap the Count!
BBC Pride & Prejudice
Fans of the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice (and yes, there are many of you) will know that scene at Pemberley, where Lizzie (Jennifer Ehle) plays the piano and sings as Mr Darcy (Colin Firth) stares at her from across the room.
This — in an English translation — is Cherubino’s famous Act II aria ‘Voi che sapete’ (all about the agony and ecstasy of being in love) from The Marriage of Figaro. The opera had its London premiere in 1812, around the time the story of Pride & Prejudice takes place, so it may well have been the song of the summer 😉
The King’s Speech
If you’ve seen 2010’s multi Academy Award-winning drama The King’s Speech, you’ll remember “Bertie” HRH The Duke of York (Colin Firth)’s first session with speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush): Lionel gets him to recite ‘To be or not to be’ while wearing headphones blasting music into his ears, which helps Bertie to speak more fluently.
That energetic, classical music on the gramophone is Mozart’s overture to The Marriage of Figaro.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Nostalgic? The overture to The Marriage of Figaro is also used in the classic 1971 film of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
It’s this music that Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder) plays on a piano keyboard to unlock the chocolate factory doors, which Mike Teevee’s mother credits to “Rachmaninov” 😂
Emily in Paris
Love it or love to hate it, the opera even crops up in Season 3 of Netflix’s Emily in Paris (2022). Sylvie has tickets to the opening night of The Marriage of Figaro and Luc offers to be her plus one: “It’s my favourite! The drama! The arias!”
But in the end, Sylvie goes with her husband, who surprises her for their wedding anniversary, arriving at the stunning Opéra de Paris to the soundtrack of Cherubino’s aria ‘Voi che sapete’.
Mad Men
Smash hit American drama Mad Men (first aired 2007-2015 and now on Netflix), about the world of New York ad agencies in the 1960s, featured an early episode actually called The Marriage of Figaro.
Affairs and romantic entanglements mimic the plot of the opera, and Cherubino’s aria ‘Voi che sapete’ can be heard in the background on the radio at Sally Draper (leading man Don Draper’s daughter)’s birthday party.
Amadeus
The Figaro overture (unsuprisingly) stars in the trailer for new five-part mini series Amadeus, premiering on Sky this December!
Based on Peter Shaffer’s award-winning stage play and adapted by Joe Barton (Black Doves, Giri/Haji, The Lazarus Project), it explores the meteoric rise of one of history’s most iconic composers — Wolfgang ‘Amadeus’ Mozart.
Hear the music live
Our brand new production of The Marriage of Figaro is on January-March 2026
