The premiere of the opera Le Nozze di Figaro took place at the Burgtheater in Vienna on the 1st of May 1786. The first two performances were conducted by the composer himself. Mozart’s friend, singer Michael Kelly reminisced: “No one has ever had a more splendid success than Mozart with his Le Nozze di Figaro. The theatre was packed, many numbers had to be repeated, so the opera was performed for twice as long, but the audience would not stop applauding and recall Mozart”. The emperor even had to issue a special statement: to give only certain arias as an encore and not large complete numbers. Then a Parisian premiere was held with even greater success. In Russia Le Nozze di Figaro was first presented in 1815 by a German troupe in St Petersburg.